David Smoot continues to look forward as he gives back to his community

“If I can raise $50 million or $100 million and make a difference on several reservations that way, that’s what I want to do before I die.” – David Smoot

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Computer software leasing, wastewater project development and renewable energy production are just some of the industries Mvskoke citizen David Smoot has worked in during his career over the past several decades. Smoot was born in Guthrie and raised in rural Sasakwa, Oklahoma located south of the Mvskoke Reservation in Seminole County. He moved in with his grandparents at age seven in Canadian. He was later placed in a protestant orphanage in Cincinnati, Ohio after his mother passed away. Smoot grew up in the orphanage throughout high school. Although Smoot has traveled and lived in many different areas across the country, he can still recall early childhood memories growing up with his siblings.

“Life in Oklahoma was fishing and hunting, and being boys, just being normal, it was absolutely wonderful,” Smoot said. “We were dirt poor, but we didn’t know it, let’s put it that way.”

Smoot also claims Cherokee heritage in his family. Growing up his family attended local pow wows. To his recollection, Smoot’s family was never forced to hide their cultural identity, nor were they prohibited from speaking the Mvskoke language. However, the culture and traditions were not passed down to his generation in his family. Smoot’s mother attended Carlisle Indian School, one of the most infamous boarding schools that separated Indigenous children from families and displaced them over 1,000 miles away in Pennsylvania. Smoot’s mother ran away from the boarding school a total of three times.

The orphanage Smoot grew up in was strict, but he attributes its rigid structure to molding him into the businessman he is today. He also played several sports: football, basketball and baseball. During the summers as a young athlete Smoot practiced with the likes of future sports stars like Pete Rose and Johnny Bench in Cincinnati. A basketball scholarship gave him the opportunity to attend college. Smoot tried out for the Virginia Squires, a former American Basketball Association team in Norfolk, Virginia. As fate would have it, the same week Smoot learned he made the team, he also received a draft notice for the Army. 

“I got my draft notice from Uncle Sam to report to Ft. Benning, Georgia in 30 days,” Smoot said. “That ended my basketball dreams.” 

Although Smoot was drafted during the Vietnam War era, he did not fight in the conflict. He served in the national guard unit in northern Kentucky. After completing basic training, Smoot returned home and found a job selling computers and leasing computer software that would put him on the path to becoming a renewable energy mogul.

A Career Decades in the Making

Although computer software purchasing and leasing is a flourishing industry today, the landscape of the industry was merely in its infancy 50 years ago.

“It was early in that industry (computer software) in the ‘70s,” Smoot said. “The software and microcomputer industry was just starting to become a reality.”

Smoot rose through the ranks and found himself working out of Pebble Beach, California. He leased multimillion dollar software packages with up-and-coming computer companies at the time like Microsoft and Apple. It was here where Smoot began developing business-savvy strategies that made him stand out. Back then clients traditionally paid in cash, which would take three years to pay off. Smoot provided a way to refinance these contracts where companies could take five years to pay off their contracts.

Leaving California in 1983, Smoot moved to Chicago where he started his own software leasing company. This new business venture afforded Smoot the opportunity to conduct business with Fortune 500 companies. At its peak, the company brought in sales of $100M. Smoot sold the company and transitioned into wastewater development.

In 1995 Smoot moved to Arizona and started working with developers on creating wastewater infrastructure in areas outside of the sphere of influence, or areas where residents have to retrieve water for themselves. According to Smoot, his business became the primary provider of wastewater and fiber optic infrastructure in the area.

Although Smoot had found success in software leasing and wastewater development, he did not initially find the same success in renewable energy. In the 2000s Smoot began managing 2,000 acre solar farms in Southern California. Unfortunately, he would later find out there was no capacity for the utility lines for his company to use. After that company went under, he returned to Phoenix.

Undeterred, Smoot continued to pursue the entrepreneurial possibilities renewable energy provided. He started Arizona Renewable Fuels, which collected feedstock and scraps from a local landfill on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community’s reservation.

“Their landfill was getting filled up, so by us taking all the wood that was coming in, up to one million tons a year, and putting that through gasifiers that powered turbans, we could make electricity and sell it to SRP (Salt River Project).” Smoot said.

Investors were not convinced the new technology was profitable. Smoot once again had to go back to the drawing board and assemble a new team to develop a business approach to the technology. The business explored the possibility of using wood from volcanoes for renewable fuels for Hawaiian Airlines. Unable to get funding, that idea did not lift off the ground. Smoot once again moved operations in the late 2010s to Washington, a state known for its timber production. This would lead to the crowning achievement of Smoot’s career.

Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels

Today, Smoot is the founder and CEO of Northwest Advanced Bio-Fuels (NWABF), an energy company that sells sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to airlines. Now producing a product clients felt comfortable buying, NWABF signed a contract with one of the largest airlines in the world.

“Delta Airlines in 2019 gave us one of the biggest, longest, most valuable offtake agreement anyone had ever signed to date at that time.” Smoot said.

The multi-billion, 10-year contract will fund a feasibility study of biofuel production. According to a statement from Delta, their goal is to reduce lifecycle emissions up to 80 percent, reducing their overall carbon footprint. Smoot projects that the refinery will start production by 2029.

SAFs are composed from woody biomass, materials obtained from trees or tree products, and replace the need for petroleum-based fuels. The biomass is not collected from live trees, rather it is collected from slash piles, mill waste and forest residuals. Through every step of refinement NWABF measures their carbon footprint.

Renewable energy has become a polarized topic in politics. Not everyone is on board with the transition from fossil to renewable fuels. As an industry insider leading the charge on developing SAFs, Smoot foresees renewable energy in America’s future. 

“Everyone sees the administrations change and they think the renewable industry is going away, but it’s not,” Smoot said. “It’s going to be around for a long time but it’s going to be different. They now know how to paint buildings with a paint or make glass with substances that act like solar panels. You could have your whole building be a solar panel. That’s the way they are going to be constructed in the future.”

Smoot remarked that it is his dream to start a family 501c3 that will work with Indigenous students and veterans. He also has a vision to provide scholarships and apprenticeships to children of Native American veterans who had either died or were wounded. According to Smoot, there is still a lot of work to be done to give Native American youth the opportunities to succeed in life.

“These kids need help all across the country. I work with the tribes in Arizona. We go to their homes where they sometimes don’t have electricity or running water,” It’s unbelievable at my age that I am seeing that on reservations in this country when we spend the money that we do on other things.”

The contract with Delta appears to be just the beginning of the transition to renewable energy in the airline industry. According to Smoot, NWABF is in talks with other airlines to start their own SAF project companies. To learn more about NWABF, visit their website.