Chief Executive, Chair, Harbor Freight Tools USA Inc.
Smidt was 17 years old when he turned his father’s phone-sales business into a mail-order tool business. Smidt co-founded the Calabasas-based Harbor Freight, a discount tool retailer, in 1977. In 1985 Smidt became Harbor Freight’s president. He took on the role of chief executive in 1999, when he bought out his father. Harbor Freight operates more than 1,300 stores and has 28,000 employees. The company generates about $6.5 billion in annual revenue. It was named to the 2023 list of Fortune’s top 10 workplaces in retail. Smidt, an avid art collector, serves on the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Smidt also founded and chairs The Smidt Foundation, which reported close to $300 million in assets as of the end of 2021; it has donated $5 million to the Holocaust Museum in Pan Pacific Park. The foundation supports a wide range of charitable causes, among them public education, veterans and first responders, and programs to alleviate homelessness. The Smidt Foundation’s flagship program is Harbor Freight Tools for Schools to support excellent skilled trades education in public high schools across America. The Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence awards more than $1 million annually to outstanding skilled trades teachers and their schools.
YEARS ON LA500: 7
