2024 ACG NY Bespoke DealSource

John D. Smith has served as the Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Icon Parking, a parking management and transportation services company since January 2020. Previously, Mr. Smith served as the Chief Operating Officer of Aaron’s Inc., a publicly traded lease-to-own retailer operating over 1,800 company and franchise locations, from January 2018 until January 2020. From January 2016 to August 2017, Mr. Smith served as Chief Executive Officer of Rize Holdings, a private equity backed startup founded to transform the casual dining experience through leveraging digital technology. Prior to that, he served as the President, Mid-North Region, of Caesars Entertainment Corporation from 2013 to 2016 and as Chief Executive Officer of Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City from 2010 to 2013. John currently serves on the Board of Directors of Carrols Corporation (TAST) and the Atlanta Conventions and Visitors Bureau. 

Mr. Smith received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Temple University and his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Dr. Aamir A. Rehman | SPEAKER
Chair | Innate Capital Partners
Board of Directors | Fajr Capital Advisors - Nuvem Health - INCEIF University - Mercer County Community College Foundation
Sr. Fellow & Adjunct Faculty Member | Columbia Business School

Dr. Aamir A. Rehman is a private equity practitioner and educator.

Dr. Rehman is Chair of Innate Capital Partners, which invests in enterprises that help people align their finances with their values. Innate Capital Partners’ portfolio includes stakes in eight financial services companies and advisors and five ESG-aligned funds.
Dr. Rehman is also a Senior Fellow and adjunct faculty member at Columbia Business School, where he teaches in the private equity program. He has taught Foundations of Private Equity, an executive MBA course, to over 200 students since 2021. He has also led events on private equity and ESG investing at Columbia University’s Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy.

In addition to his work in investments, Dr. Aamir served as Senior Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme from 2017 to 2021. He has also consulted the World Bank Group on the impact of Islamic finance on sustainable development and financial inclusion.
Dr. Rehman was a co-founder and managing director at Fajr Capital, a private equity group that successfully invested over $700 million, from 2007 to 2016. He earlier served as head of strategy for a global business unit of the HSBC Group, and as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.

Dr. Aamir serves on the boards of directors of Fajr Capital Advisors and Nuvem Health, and on the Limited Partners Advisory Council of Mindshift Capital. He also serves on the board of directors of INCEIF University and the Mercer County Community College Foundation.
Dr. Aamir is author of the books Gulf Capital and Islamic Finance: The Rise of the New Global Players (McGraw-Hill, 2009) and Dubai & Co.: Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States (McGraw-Hill, 2007), amongst other publications. His doctoral dissertation at Columbia University examined how private equity professionals develop investment acumen.

Dr. Aamir holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He further holds a doctoral degree in education (Ed.D.) from Columbia University. He was born and raised in New York City and resides with his family in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.

Maureen Farmer is a member of ACG New York and CEO/Founder of Westgate Executive Branding and Career Consulting. She leads a successful boutique executive branding and career advisory services firm with a major emphasis on executive branding and leadership optimization. Since 2011, she has proven her exceptional advisory skills, personal branding strategies, and a consistent ability to help business professionals optimize performance with satisfied clients through the expansion of their market footprint. A recipient of several industry awards, in 2023, she was nominated for the RBC Women of Influence Award through the Royal Bank of Canada Women of Influence organization.

Dimitri Skambas is a Senior Associate at SRV Partners, where he takes on substantive roles in the firm’s restructuring and interim management engagements. Dimitri previously worked at the Ouroboros Group, a consumer-focused private equity firm, where he was responsible for the firm’s business development and execution activities.

Prior to the Ouroboros Group, Dimitri covered the private equity space at Bannockburn Global Forex, a division of First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ: FFBC). He also worked as a structured finance analyst at MUFG covering the Metals & Mining and Agribusiness sectors in Latin America, and participated in the graduate rotational program at Brown Brothers Harriman.

Dimitri holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs.

He is currently serving as Co-Chair of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) NY’s Forward Committee and a Leadership 2030 Fellow for the Hellenic American Leadership Council. When not in the office he enjoys the trials and tribulations of learning the game of golf, rooting for all of Boston’s sports teams and visiting the best Greek restaurants in NYC. He speaks fluent Greek and is conversant in Spanish.