Caleb Smith is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Syntheos. In this role, he leads the development of advanced platforms that help organizations navigate complex, high-consequence decisions with clarity and confidence. He founded Syntheos on the belief that “the world needs more answers, not more tools”​– an ethos reflecting his focus on delivering clear, evidence-based insights rather than just more data. This principle guides Syntheos’s mission to transform how critical decisions are made, empowering teams to take informed action even in the most challenging environments​.

In addition to leading Syntheos, Caleb serves as the Director of Research Intelligence & Analytics at the University of Michigan Medical School. In that capacity, he co-founded the Research Intelligence & Analytics unit within the Medical School’s Office of Research – a strategic data support team that provides decision support through complex, data-driven investigations​. In this role he helped university leadership harness large-scale research data to inform strategy, identify emerging opportunities, and align investments with mission goals. His tenure at Michigan Medicine, which began in 2006, has been marked by a commitment to turning data into actionable intelligence for institutional decision-making.

Caleb is also a Partner at SciTech Strategies, a pioneering firm in research analytics and close collaborator with Syntheos. At SciTech, his work focuses on translational science and knowledge transfer across scientific communities​. He leveraged social network analysis to map out emerging research networks, identify critical pathways for new discoveries, and predict future applications of scientific knowledge​. This experience honed his ability to uncover insights from complex data and facilitated the transfer of “micro-solutions” – small but powerful innovations – between research domains to accelerate progress.

Throughout his career, Caleb has been recognized for innovative contributions to research strategy and analytics, particularly in improving complex decision-making processes. In 2021, he received the University of Michigan’s Research Technical Staff Recognition Award for his exceptional service​. Colleagues praised how his insights and innovative contributions provided a “critical advantage” in keeping the institution at the leading edge of innovation​. Caleb is also an active contributor to the scholarly community, co-authoring peer-reviewed publications on research intelligence and translational science. His work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science and Scientific Data (Nature), underscoring his thought leadership in the field.

Caleb brings a vision of clarity and human-centered innovation to every project. He emphasizes clarity over clutter – ensuring that technology surfaces what truly matters and filters out noise. His leadership philosophy centers on augmenting human judgment with transparent, explainable AI: the systems he develops are designed to enhance human decision-making, not replace it​. Under Caleb’s guidance, Syntheos continues to build trust-driven solutions that are both rigorously data-driven and deeply aligned with the client's mission. From healthcare and research to defense and public policy, he is dedicated to delivering decision intelligence tools that make ambiguity navigable and critical choices more informed and confident.