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Published on 08/07/1995 All articles from this issue

Honors awailt NAWBO president Margaret Smith

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

Los Altos Hills resident Margaret Smith, a Los Altos-based attorney, is the newly elected president of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). A reception in her honor will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara.

Smith has been recognized nationally for her involvement and dedication to the small business community. She has presented Congressional testimony on issues affecting small business and presented her views in the print media.

"Women are starting businesses in the United States at twice the rate of any other group," Smith said, citing statistics that show 7.7 million women business owners in the United States with total revenue more than $1.4 trillion in 1994. Businesses led by women also employ 35 percent more people in the United States than Fortune 500 companies do in the entire world.

Smith is the founding partner of her Los Altos law firm which specializes in representing small and medium-sized businesses in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. She has an affiliate office in Washington, DC.

"In my law practice, I see more family owned businesses starting. The educational opportunities and the right sizing enable more people to believe they can own and manage their own business," Smith said. "Small business is the engine that drives the economy. The social changes happening in this country are causing renewed interest in entrepreneurships."

Smith's vision of women coming together to work, celebrate and learn, prompted this year's national theme, "NAWBO Leaders Transforming the Year 2020."

The work place is changing according to Smith, and women are going to make up more than 50 percent of the work force by the turn of the century. The mission of NAWBO is to propel women into social, political and economic spheres of power.

This past year, Smith appeared on the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour and "CBS This Morning" concerning the president's proposed health care reform legislation and its impact on small business owners. She is a guest speaker on radio talk shows and a frequent guest lecturer for small business seminars.

Smith is one of the founders of the Silicon Valley chapter of NAWBO and started her business in Los Altos because it is a friendly receptive place for a woman owned law firm. She received her undergraduate degree from George Washington University and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Santa Clara Law School.

She is married to Paul, has one son working as a law partner and another who is a special effects animator for a video game manufacturer.