Multifunctional executive with 20 years experience in start-ups, strategic planning, restructuring, operational improvements and capital markets advisory.

Darvin Schmidt has 20 years experience of economic, financial advisory and operations management experience in industry and as a consultant. Darvin has worked in the technology, health care, financial services, retail and real estate industries. He currently provides interim management and consulting services to under-capitalized or under-performing companies or companies in transition.

Darvin was the Chief Operating Officer of BrideStuff.com, an online wedding accessories retailer and fulfillment company. Darvin expanded the company’s operations internationally, addressing shipping, logistics and international customs issues. He also served as the Chief Financial Officer, overseeing the financial analysis/planning and budgeting processes. He employed benchmarking techniques and establish performance metrics to guide the company’s revenue growth and improve the company’s core competencies – customer service and timely delivery.

Prior to BrideStuff.com, Darvin was an investment banker with Southwest Securities, the largest full service investment banking firm in Texas. Darvin helped telecommunication companies, healthcare companies, and software companies raise venture capital, go public or merge with other companies. At Arthur Andersen, Darvin provided financial advisory services and risk management services to companies across all industries, including damage cost calculations in litigation cases. Darvin also co-managed a commercial portfolio of 400 retail drugstores with a subsidiary of J.C. Penney & Co., Inc., accurately predicting first-year sales performance of new stores within 10% of actual sales.

Darvin was an early pioneer in the telecommunications deregulation era. He developed short-term and long-term cost curves for telecommunication service providers and conducted price/cost studies for the Regional Bell Operating Companies in 22 state jurisdictions. He gave seminars on competitive vulnerability to executives at local exchange companies and drafted deregulation legislation at the state level. He oversaw upgrades to a software package called SimTel® which simulated competitive markets using supply (cost) and demand curves. He has co-authored a book on the demographic changes in the DFW area and a statistical treatise on intraLATA telecommunications competition in the United States.

Darvin has an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin with a concentration in Finance and a B.A. with General Honors in Economics from the University of Chicago. He is trained in economic analysis, statistics, financial analysis and modeling and advanced mathematics. Darvin has been a member of the Texas Economic and Demographic Association. He has also served on boards of several companies.