Ken Smith is a numbers guy, and virtually every day, he’s inundated with data, figures and spreadsheets.
In his role as the assistant University budget director, Smith works primarily with UNC Charlotte’s General Fund Budget, comprised of state appropriations and tuition and fees. For the 2013-14 fiscal year, it totals around $330 million.
“Chiefly, I support the University divisions with their needs related to their operating budgets. At the same time, I provide assistance and analysis to University leaders to aid in their planning as the institution moves forward,” Smith explained. “Basically, the Budget Office monitors the University’s funding to ensure it’s not being overspent.”
The Budget Office employs eight full-time staff members, and Smith has two colleagues assisting in the management of the General Fund budget – Sandra Leeds and Carrie Smith.
“We make a great team,” said Smith. “We work with divisional budget managers across campus to make sure they understand their budgets – everything from knowing how much General Fund budget they have to knowing where this budget is recorded to interpreting policy. We also have a role in helping the chancellor allocate new recurring and one-time funds each year. Each division establishes fiscal priorities, and we consolidate this information and present it to the chancellor and his team so they can decide how best to allocate these new funds.”
A native of Iredell County, Smith is a UNC Charlotte alumnus, too. He was a Cameron Scholar, which was the University’s highest academic scholarship at that time. After completing a bachelor’s in accounting, he worked in the banking and financial services industry before joining Wake Forest University’s Budget Office as a senior analyst. During his eight-year stint at Wake Forest, he completed a Master of Business Administration degree.
The ever-changing complexity of state budgeting is a challenge, but Smith said he really enjoys the job. “I love helping people plan how to implement goals based upon their budgets. Our goal is to assist departments as they spend their General Fund money, but it has to be done the right way, which can sometimes be a challenge.”
Smith graduated from the University in 1992, and the campus had changed dramatically when he returned in 2007.
“I actually got lost when I came for my interview. The road patterns had changed, and I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Smith joked.
A more recent change, the addition of Charlotte 49ers football, is a plus for the University, said Smith. It should help re-engage alumni, he added. “Having a football team was a big topic of conversation while I was a student.”
Outside his Reese Building office, Smith, who lives in Statesville, enjoys spending time with his wife Reponda and daughters Madelyn, 14, and Holly, 10.
“One of the benefits of working at the University is flexibility when it comes to work schedules, so I can spend more time with my daughters,” said Smith. “I can play a greater role in their lives.”
In the past, he’s coached his daughters’ youth soccer teams, but now he’s trying to get them excited about riding roller coasters.