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Mike Rothman

Michael Rothman

Board Observer

Michael Rothman has over 25 years of experience in the industrial service sector and 10 years in the retail services industry. Mr. Rothman served as chairman and CEO of SMS Assist, L.L.C. since its startup in 2003 to May 2017; he was executive chairman through 2022. In January 2023, Mr. Rothman began serving as board observer.

Mr. Rothman founded SMS Assist in 2003 with six employees. Under his leadership, SMS Assist transformed into one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Chicago. In 2016, the same year Rothman was named a Midwest Entrepreneur of the Year and also a national finalist by Ernst & Young, SMS Assist received $150 million in Series D funding at a $1 billion valuation from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, the same team that invested in Uber, Facebook, Pinterest and Spotify. SMS Assist has also been ranked on the Forbes World’s Best #32 of 100 Cloud Companies list, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 for two years running, a 2017 Digital Edge 50 award winner, and in 2015 received the Moxie Award and the Momentum Award for its technology and industry leadership as well as the Innovation Award in 2013.

Mr. Rothman transformed the business from a traditional brick and mortar service company into an advanced technology company whose mobile and cloud-based facilities maintenance platform manages over 28,000 affiliated providers to service a nationwide roster of Fortune 500 retail and industrial clients representing over 140,000 locations. SMS Assist’s proprietary technology provides vendor management, logistics planning, real-time order tracking, predictive modeling and electronic invoicing to deliver on-time, best-in-class service to every location, every time. A leader in facilities management, SMS Assist and its affiliated providers execute millions of services annually while delivering significant cost savings to their clients.

Prior to SMS Assist, Mr. Rothman founded Kenny Industrial Services, a national coating and industrial cleaning company servicing 1,200 industrial customers, many from the Fortune 500. During his five-year tenure, Mr. Rothman was responsible for growth of the company’s annual revenues from $7 million to $240 million with 32 offices nationwide and over 3,000 employees. Before Mr. Rothman’s departure in 2003, he positioned Kenny as the #1 coating company and #32 in the top 600 specialty contractors in the country rated by E&R (Engineering Newsweek) and won many top safety awards.