Nelson Smith

Nelson Smith is currently a partner at Riviera Partners. Nelson has over fifteen years of experience in recruiting, sales, and marketing. Prior to Riviera Partners, they were a Practice Lead at another recruiting firm. There, they were responsible for retained search and exclusive placement of Executive & Senior-level positions with high growth, venture-backed technology companies.

Before that, Nelson was Firm Manager at TERRANSOFT, INC., where they launched, managed & was an individual contributor for a start-up firm serving hi-tech client companies in the SF Bay Area. Nelson provided recruiting services for Software Engineering, Engineering Management, Sales & Marketing positions. At Terran Systems, they were a Senior/Technical Recruiter.

Nelson left TERRANSOFT to become Principal at JJA VentureSearch LLC, where they led and supported multiple Executive level searches focused on a SoCal based portfolio in Digital Media, Consumer Internet and Enterprise Software companies. Nelson successfully delivered across a broad range of functional areas including Engineering, Product, Sales/Bus Dev, Marketing and Finance.

Nelson's first job out of college was Advertising Sales at American Lawyer/Time-Warner. Nelson worked there for four years before moving into the recruiting field.

Nelson Smith's educational career includes a BA in International Studies from Tulane University.

Nelson Smith reports to William Hunsinger, Chief Executive Officer. Some of their coworkers include Dirk Cleveland - Partner, Eric Larson - Senior Partner, and George Kaszacs - Partner.