Earl Cole

Founder & CEO
SMART Tire

Earl Cole is the founder and CEO at SMART Tire. He leads the commercialization of non-pneumatic tire systems utilizing Nitinol shape memory alloys originally engineered for the NASA Mars Rover program. This expertise extends to advanced material transition protocols executed under an exclusive Space Act Agreement with NASA to deploy dual-use mobility platforms across commercial, aerospace and defense sectors.

Leveraging this record of success, Cole accelerated commercial product readiness to catalyze high-impact market entry while scaling the corporate footprint into a new engineering facility within Hawthorne, California. This leadership trajectory supports global humanitarian advocacy through his tenure as founder and chairman of the Perthes Kids Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that manages specialized patient camps across Los Angeles and San Diego.