Smith, who is a 17-year veteran of the industry and is based in the Long Beach office of Cushman & Wakefield, becomes the 36th president of the real estate organization. He succeeds Brad Vickrey of GVA Daum in the AIR presidency, which is a one-year post.

Smith heads a list of new AIR officers for 2004. The others are Becky Blair of Blair Commercial Real Estate in Long Beach, president-elect; I. Hassan of Quantum Associates in Los Angeles, vice president/Multiple chair; Stan Mullin of Grubb & Ellis in Newport Beach, vice president/education chair; and Doug Earnhart of Lee & Associates in Ontario, secretrary-treasurer.

A member of AIR since 1995, Smith has served on the association's board of directors since 1998. In this capacity, he has served as chairman of the education and forms committees, a member of the finance and orientation committees, and Multiple director. The new AIR chief says he is optimistic about prospects for both the office and industrial real estate markets in 2004 and 2005. Coupled with stabilizing rents, he says, indications are that the manufacturing and service sectors should grow this year and throughout 2005. AIR has expanded strongly in Orange County, he notes, with plans to make substantial inroads into the Inland Empire this year.

AIR is a non-profit corporation formed in l960 to foster knowledge, integrity and efficiency in the field of industrial and commercial real estate brokerage. More than 1,350 real estate professionals in more than 300 firms located in the eight-county Southern California area, representing approximately 95% of the brokerage community, participate in AIR. The group is headquartered in Downtown Los Angeles.