Christopher P. Smith is a managing director of Artisan Partners and founding portfolio manager of the Artisan Partners Thematic Team. Prior to joining Artisan Partners in October 2016, Mr. Smith was a senior analyst at Kingdon Capital Management from October 2014 to October 2016 where he managed capital directly for Mark Kingdon. Mr. Smith spent the majority of his career at Karsch Capital Management where he was a managing director and a senior analyst covering the consumer, media and industrial sectors. Upon Karsch Capital closing in August 2013, Mr. Smith was selected by Michael Karsch to create and exclusively manage Centerline Investment Partners, a long-only fund with more than $100 million in assets, which he then merged into Kingdon Capital with the client’s approval. Mr. Smith has also worked at Soros Fund Management, as well as UBS and Credit Suisse in equity research. He holds a bachelors degree in finance from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (summa cum laude).