Speaker Profile

Janet Marie Smith is a leader in the sports development business with a career focused on venue design and planning. She is the co-founder of Canopy Team, a woman-led firm headquartered in Baltimore, MD and Pasadena, CA that specializes in large-scale sports projects, urban revitalization, and community-driven developments, as well as smaller projects like museums, retail spaces, and public parks. She is also the Executive Vice President of Planning & Development for the Los Angeles Dodgers and has served in a similar executive capacity for the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, and Turner Sports and Development.

At Dodger Stadium, Smith has overseen the modernization of Dodger Stadium including the creation of the Centerfield Plaza in 2020, Dodger Stadium’s first-ever “front door,” featuring new fan amenities and improved accessibility with escalators, elevators, and bridges. Highlights of her career also include overseeing the renovation of Fenway Park from 2002-2009 and the creation of Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which set a new standard for ballpark design when it opened in 1992.

Smith’s non-sports projects include Battery Park City in New York and the redevelopment of former industrial buildings along Baltimore’s harbor.

A native of Jackson, MS, Smith holds a degree in architecture from Mississippi State University and a master’s degree in urban planning from City College of New York. She received numerous awards including the ALDS Visionary Award, CUNY Townsend Harris Medal, is inducted in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, and is featured in the National Baseball Hall of Fame “Diamond Dreams” exhibit. She has an honorary doctorate from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and has been the Edward P. Bass Visiting Professor at Yale University.