The Power generation profiles: Ewell Smith

When promotion is your business, it helps to believe in your product. "This is the best product in the world to promote," says Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotions & Marketing Board. The Louisiana native is responsible for promoting the state's seafood industry locally and nationally. It is an industry that employs more than 33,000 fishermen, seafood processors and distributors and has an economic impact of $2 billion, but Smith calls his job fun. "Marketing Louisiana's seafood takes a lot of time but it isn't really work," he says.

Smith got involved in marketing and promotions about a year after earning an MBA degree from the University of New Orleans. He also has a psychology degree from Louisiana State University. He says he came to the realization that marketing was his strength when he worked for a publishing company, New Orleans Publishing Group. He became involved with a company that promoted concerts and special events. He later signed on as marketing manager for Southern Forest Products Association, the trade organization for southern pine timber. While there, Smith conceptualized the first branding of a wood species, coining the slogan "Southern Pine By Design," for which he earned national accolades.