Patrick Smith
Patrick Smith is a fourth-generation farmer and the CEO of Loftus Ranches, one of the nation’s leading hop producers. Loftus Ranches and its affiliates produce hops, apples, peppers, pears, industrial hemp, and other crops in the Yakima Valley of central Washington State. Patrick’s background is in finance, and he has extensive industry and nonprofit board experience.
Patrick started his finance career with UBS Financial Services in Seattle as an associate in the Corporate Cash Management group, serving the cash management needs of public and private companies in the Pacific Northwest region and beyond. He then became co-founder and managing member of Sawtooth Capital, LLC in Seattle. After pursuing some independent consulting opportunities, he joined Merrill Lynch (later Bank of America Merrill Lynch) as an analyst in their Public Finance Group in Seattle. There, Patrick worked with municipal bond issuers in the Pacific Northwest and Western US in structuring their bond issues. Some of the issuers he worked with include the State of Washington, the Port of Seattle, the Port of Tacoma, Sound Transit, the University of Washington, and King County.
In 2009, Patrick left Seattle and the finance industry to return to his hometown of Yakima and rejoin his family’s agriculture business. In the 11 years since, he has emerged as one of the hop industry’s leading executives and strategists. Patrick co-founded Bale Breaker Brewing Company in 2013 with siblings Meghann Quinn and Kevin Smith and brother-in-law Kevin Quinn. In addition to the farming entities and brewery, the family is active in the ownership and management of vertically integrated partners in the hop and apple value chains, including Yakima Chief Ranches, Yakima Chief Hops, Hop Breeding Company, Olympic Fruit Company, and Sage Fruit.
Smith is a native of Yakima Valley and received his bachelor’s in business administration from the Michael G. Foster School of Business/UW. He went on to earn a master’s in Agricultural Economics/Purdue University, a Master of Business Administration at the Kelley School of Business/ Indiana University, and a master’s in Business Analytics from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business/ New York University.