Atlanta native Leonte Benton named new president of T. Dallas Smith & Company, one of the largest black-owned CRE firms in the United States

T. Dallas Smith & Company (TDS&Co)the largest commercial real estate company (CRE) of pure African American-owned tenant representatives in the nation, today officially announced that Senior Vice President, Leonte Bentonwho as a trainee of the founder, T. Dallas Smithwho inspired the founding of the company 15 years ago, will now assume the role of president managing oversight of the firm’s brokerage operations.

The move makes Leonte one of the youngest African Americans to serve as head of a commercial real estate brokerage firm in the United States. Leonte succeeds T. Dallas Smith, the company’s founder and CEO. Dallas will retain the role of general manager and expand his role to include developing additional real estate opportunities for the company.

Leonte, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, was an intern in Dallas while working on his college degree. His ambition, attention to detail, and ability to quickly gain in-depth market knowledge while developing genuine relationships made his rise inevitable. Its portfolio of commercial real estate transactions includes leading entities such as Airbnb, AT&T, The Coca-Cola Company, FedEx, JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft.

“This promotion has always been part of my mission to expose more young African Americans to commercial real estate,” said T. Dallas Smith, Founder and CEO.

“Leonte is what this company and this industry needs right now, from his fresh perspective on the market to his unparalleled ability to negotiate and get things done. He is uniquely equipped to change the face of commercial real estate and grow this company from a multi-million dollar brokerage to a billion dollar brokerage.

Leonte embraces the mission of exposing the next generation to better opportunities through his service. He sits on several boards, including the Atlanta Police Foundation, the Georgia Department of Education, and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He was recognized as a top 40 Under 40 by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, an Atlanta Business League influencer and has attended both LEAD Atlanta and Leadership Georgia. He graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance.

“I know what it’s like to have a dream and a desire to be part of my future because I was once that kid who had great mentors to pave the way for me,” Leonte explained.

“My priority every day will be to move this business forward and bring more young people into this business which is making more millionaires than most major league sports combined.”

The official transition is effective Monday, August 22, 2022.