Texans executive vice president of football operations and general manager Rick Smith will speak at the NFL Career Development Symposium at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business from May 6-8.
The three-day program is designed for aspiring head coach and general manager candidates who currently work for NFL teams. They'll be engaged with presentations, panel discussions, breakout sessions and networking opportunities with owners, club presidents, coaches, general managers such as Smith and league executives including commissioner Roger Goodell.
"I'm very excited to be a part of the Career Symposium," Smith said. "I think it's vitally important that we continue to develop talent so that when opportunities arise, people have the skill set and have developed the attributes that are necessary to sit in these jobs. It's an important endeavor that the league is doing, and I'm excited to be a part of it."
The Career Development Symposium previously ran from 1998-2008. Attendees included current head coaches Leslie Frazier (Minnesota), John Harbaugh (Baltimore), Chuck Pagano (Indianapolis), Ron Rivera (Carolina) and Mike Smith (Atlanta) and general managers Trent Baalke (San Francisco), John Dorsey (Kansas City) and John Schneider (Seattle).
The program will be directed by NFL executive vice president and chief human resources officer Robert Gulliver and NFL executive vice president of football operations Ray Anderson.
Smith, a member of the NFL's Competition Committee, will speak on a panel about player health and safety with Anderson and Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
Other presenters at the symposium include team owners Robert Kraft (Patriots), Woody Johnson (Jets), Dan Rooney (Steelers), Shad Khan (Jaguars) and John Mara (Giants), along with several NFL general managers and head coaches.
"I think what the symposium does is it exposes the participants to a couple of very important things," Smith said. "Number one, it exposes them to more information about some of the inner workings of the league, and in areas that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to learn. Number two, it gives them a chance to interact with some of the folks that are key decision-makers. I think anytime you give people more information and more exposure, it's a benefit."
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