Ken Smith honored with emeritus status
Ken Smith, who retired from Virginia Tech last year, has been conferred the title of vice provost emeritus of academic resource management and chief operating officer emeritus of the Innovation Campus by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The emeritus title may be conferred on retired faculty members who are specially recommended to the board by Virginia Tech President Tim Sands in recognition of exemplary service to the university. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board receive a copy of the resolution and a certificate of appreciation.
Smith, who served the Virginia Tech community for more than 26 years in the Office of Budget and Financial Planning, the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, and as chief operating officer of the Innovation Campus, became the chief operating officer of the Virginia Tech Foundation in August.
As university budget manager during his five years in the Office of Budget and Financial Planning, Smith advanced the production of the university’s Authorized Budget Document, implemented the first institutional funding formulas for recurring distributions of Equipment Trust Funds and Eminent Scholar Funds, and created models for self-supporting funding models for emerging online professional programs.
In 2002, Smith joined the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, where he served three provosts for more than 18 years. He was instrumental in the reorganization of colleges that occurred in 2002, in the start-up of multiple institutes and initiatives including the Institute for Critical Technologies and Applied Sciences, the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.
In 2020, he followed the last initiative he nurtured in the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost to become the founding chief operating officer of the Innovation Campus, the university’s major investment and expansion in the greater Washington, D.C., metro area, overseeing both design and programming of the new campus building and implementing many changes in regional services to improve the faculty and student experience in the area.
Throughout his career with Virginia Tech, Smith has advocated for data informed decision making and resource allocation, culminating in the creation of the University Data Commons, an accessible, central repository of descriptive and predictive analytical tools for managers and the Partnership for an Incentive Based Budget, a performance budget model that linked resource allocation to a range of both outputs and qualitative outcomes.
Smith received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies from Virginia Tech.
