Smith Rynbrandt, LLC: Company Overview
Smith Rynbrandt is a privately held company that creates, develops and sustains comprehensive branding strategies and business plans for professional athletes, including: Athlete Endorsements, Public Relations & Media Representation, Athlete Licensing, Full Legal Representation, and Athlete Contract and Salary Negotiation.
Smith Rynbrandt’s primary concern is to maximize our client’s brand over the long run. We accomplish this by understanding an athlete’s short and long-term needs and goals and by building a strong foundation for success over the life of their career and beyond.
TIM SMITH
From May 2000 until October 2007, Tim Smith was President of Gary Player Enterprises. Responsible for the overall development of the Gary Player brand, Tim made substantial contributions to the company, owned and operated by Marc Player, and to the Athlete, golf legend Gary Player. In his tenure, Tim repositioned Gary Player as a legend who could influence an exclusive segment of the buying population of powerful endorsement partners such as Citi Private Bank, software giant SAP, and Verizon Business, as well as Shell Oil, MasterCard, Rolex, American Medical Optics, and the World Golf Hall of Fame. As a result, he was directly responsible for the signing of over $20 million in new business and endorsements.
Identifying Asia as a significant growth opportunity for the Gary Player Group, Smith also negotiated a joint venture partnership with Asian business leader, Stan Shih, founder and newly retired chairman of Acer, a $10 billion computer company out of Taiwan.
While he was not directly responsible for the development of the Gary Player brand in golf course design, Tim was directly responsible for the largest contract signed in the history of the Gary Player Design Company. The arrangement consisted of a signature Gary Player designed golf course, the creation of Gary Player Estate homes, an office for the Gary Player Group, a home for Gary Player, additional real estate considerations, as well as a representation agreement for Gary Player and the Cliffs Communities in the Carolinas. The model created at the Cliffs spurned the creation of Gary Player Real Estates, a new and lucrative business venture for the Gary Player Group.
Prior to joining the Gary Player Group, Tim worked in Brand Management for the Amway Corporation in Ada, Michigan, culminating in his appointment to Amway’s sports marketing team that was involved in the sponsorship of the NBA, Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and the European Figure Skating Championships.
Tim completed his MBA at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Michigan in 1988 after receiving his B.A.A. from Central Michigan in Exercise Science in 1986. He worked for a start-up environmental engineering firm from 1986 until 1993 as the Director of Marketing, growing sales from $300,000 per year to over $6 million per year prior to joining Amway. He lives in Jupiter, Florida with his wife Pamela and their four children: Pavin, Paige, Sydney and Olivia.
KEVIN RYNBRANDT
Kevin Rynbrandt has seventeen years of experience as an attorney. Representing athletes, businesses and corporate executives throughout his career, Kevin has negotiated multi-million dollar contracts, licenses, and agency relationships. He worked as chief trial counsel in scores of complex business and corporate matters, leading litigation teams that prevailed in numerous business-related lawsuits throughout the United States and earning single judgments as high as $21 million.
Serving for 10 years as a partner in a large Michigan law firm, Kevin represented legendary golfer Gary Player, winning a precedent-setting lawsuit in which a marketing company had misappropriated the Gary Player brand. Kevin also served as the chief legal counsel to the Gary Player Group throughout this period, helping the Group consummate highly successful transactions with Callaway Golf, Citi Private Bank, the Cliffs Communities in the Carolinas, software giant SAP, Asian business leader Stan Shih, and Verizon Business, among others.
Kevin carries the “AV” attorney rating in the renowned Martindale Hubbell national listing of attorneys, the highest rating possible from judges and colleagues throughout the country, and has been named to the notable Michigan Super Lawyers publication for his legal work throughout the country.
Kevin received a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from Wheaton College in 1983, where he also won both the team and top individual honors in intercollegiate debate at the prestigious Great Western Debate Championships. Kevin earned a Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Argumentation from the University of Illinois in 1985 and his Juris Doctor from the Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1991. Before pursuing his legal career, Kevin was a successful business consultant with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Chicago from 1985-1988.
In his community, Kevin has served on the executive committee for his congressman and chaired prominent community organization boards, including Junior Achievement for the Michigan Great Lakes, the State of Michigan Crime Victims Services Commission, and the Board of Elders at his community church. Kevin and his wife Melinda have four children, Quentin, Luke, Aidan, and Cole.
