Kent Trabing is the Budget Director and Newsletter Editor for the Wharton Club of New York. He lives in Ossining in Westchester County with his wife (26 years) and family. He was born in Santa Cruz, California and holds degrees from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an Executive MBA from Wharton 2001. Kent is the Director of Development for USP Development LLC, a commercial real estate development company. He has never worked in a building higher than two stories and has held executive positions at a variety of small real estate, consumer goods and retail firms.

HIS BACK STORY:
Far away and long ago, as my former firm peered over a knee-knocking precipice into bankruptcy, I (the pig keeper's apprentice) was suddenly promoted to EVP of sales, product development, and supply chain.... What could they lose, was perhaps the logic. Serendipitously, the year was 1995, and with thundering herds of American consumers devouring anything with a price tag before them, as well as foolishly optimistic vendors extending me imprudent amounts of financing, we blitzed back to life. The rub of course was not just that I was regularly declared brilliant, but that I began to believe it. Thus was born the thought “I must go to B school.” The long suffering world of business had awaited my education far too long, or something to this effect. This line of thought was stymied by the vague suspicion that funds were required, and in the kitty corner universe of my personal life, the cost centers were far out performing the revenue centers. Sadly, how many times in our life, do we let a silly thing like money get in the way of our dreams. Fortunately, emboldened by this dream and my newly discovered brilliance, I soon laid down the gauntlet: If, in the following year, I could lead the firm to accomplish a ridiculously unattainable goal, they would put me through the B School of my choice. The funny thing is that we accomplished that goal; the funnier thing is that I completely forgot my challenge. Perhaps I was having too much fun. But two years later, with the firm back in the black I was both reminded and given the opportunity to attend B school, but only if it was a top school, and only if I could get in. But that's another story.

WHY DID YOU VOLUNTEER FOR THIS POSITION?
I didn't. What I really wanted to do was hobnob with ambassadors, business tycoons, movers and Shakils, to invite them to speak in conference rooms on the 40th floors of glass walled monuments of merchantry, overlooking the greatest city of the world. Diana the Wise, who entices, nudges, and waltzes Wharton volunteers into fun opportunities to give back, had another idea. She explained that what the club actually needed, “pined for” may have been her words, was a budget.

I delicately put forth that not only was I not an accountant, but my wife wouldn't let me balance the checkbook.

“You do have an MBA from Wharton,” she countered.

“I thought it was the Edith Wharton School of poetry” I protested.

“You won't be alone,” she said.

“This looks like work,” I reflected.

She pledged, “We will never pay you.”

“So this is really what club needs now?” I reconfirmed.

“We will be ever grateful,” she emailed. Checkmate.

MISSION:
The mission of a budget director is to percolate order out of chaos, to tease the truth out of the multiple versions available, and to cajole all of your findings onto one 14” laptop screen. But I don't do this alone. We have a great finance team, headed up by a very smart Roe Bonelli (who travels around the world making sure that heads of companies get a good night's sleep) and Rob Rizzo (a big 4 tax director, who if President Obama, you just happen to be reading this, you should put Rob in charge of your fiscal policy, right now, today! No, I will not be your budget director unless Rob comes along as the head of that organization where it's important that you've paid your taxes.) As I was saying we have a strong bench here in finance.

VISION:
My vision is to keep my job. Oh regarding the Wharton Club, it is refreshing that both Kenny Beck, our club's fearless president and the board welcome the transparency and reality that the budget provides on both the departmental and club levels. And it is fulfilling that the club readily expresses it's gratitude for the budget itself. The good news is that with Kenny's continued encouragement, Roe's tutelage, Rob's audits, and the various chairs' cooperation, we now have a working budget, recently presented on March 10th. Just in time, because in this economy, the budget can provide clear historical feedback and future direction. I look forward to working with each of the committee chairs to set targets, evaluate procedures, and together germinate new ways for the club to grow.

NEED FROM WHARTON ALUMNI:
Start, help an affinity group.

JUST LIKE TO MENTION ...
I think we should have a gathering of 18,000 Whartonites in Central Park this summer. Whartonstock!