After three and a half years of leadership at Marshall University, President Brad Smith agreed to extend his employment agreement on Wednesday, June 11, meaning the university president will maintain his position until Dec. 31, 2029. Executive Editor Baylee Parsons sat down with Smith to discuss the journey that led him to this role and his plans for the next four years and beyond.
You are a graduate of Ceredo-Kenova High School, and I am willing to bet you are one of the only people in your graduating class who ‘made it out.’ How did it feel to leave a low-income county in West Virginia and end up in one of the richest places in the world?
It felt like a dream and a privilege. But I’ll also tell you this little-known fact: I spent 22 years dreaming of a way out of this little town and the rest of my life dreaming of a way back home. So, sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have until it’s no longer in our daily lives.
You are the first alumni – and also Huntington-area native – to serve as our president. What advantages and disadvantages come with everyone – and I do mean everyone – in our town knowing you?
Well, the advantage is everyone’s had their fingerprints on my journey. They’ve either contributed to helping raise me or teach me or support me or cheer me on or give me constructive feedback and help shape who I am. So, I say this is the place and these are the people that built me. That’s the positive.
The downside is there’s always an opportunity, or a wish, that sometimes you had a quiet time where you could just be Brad from Kenova and not have the expectation of, “Hey, what’s going on with this week’s football game? Who’s going to be the next coach?” But, to be honest with you, I don’t ever view that as a curse or a burden – I view it as a privilege. And the truth is that sometimes you give up a little bit of privacy, but that’s what I love about our town.
So, does that mean we are allowed to approach you on the street and ask for a selfie if we see you downtown?
Of course. My wife and I laugh about it. I don’t think we have had a meal yet at Backyard or Peddler or anywhere else where I don’t have someone come up and we take pictures, and I love it. We absolutely love it. It’s great.
As someone who has a long history with Marshall, how do you balance tradition with innovation as we evolve as a university?
This is important. There’s an old adage in leadership, especially in the tech sector, that there are two questions you should think about every evening when you go to bed: Are we driving enough change to remain relevant for the future, or are we driving too much change too fast that we can’t keep up? And that is really where we are today.
The velocity of change happening in this world – whether you think about what’s happening from a legislative perspective, or you think about it from a technological perspective, or now geopolitical, and what’s happening with all the tensions in the world – we can’t keep doing things the way we did yesterday. We have to be willing to learn and grow. If we’re not growing, we’re going to fall back or potentially not exist anymore.
Just last week, it was announced that you are extending your contract at Marshall for three more years. Walk me through your decision to extend this contract.
Well, it’s the board’s decision, and it was our honor to accept. What makes me excited is we have the opportunity to continue to serve the community that we love – and I say, “we,” as my wife and I, it’s a partnership. I believe we have a really exciting vision with Marshall For All, Marshall Forever. That work’s not done. It’ll never be done. But, you want to actually make sure you’re here long enough that you can get it past the tipping point so people can see that it’s achievable, and it’s really on its way to being finished.
So, if you think about the major things happening, starting with our cabinet, we have two very important jobs that we’re recruiting for right now: a new provost and a new athletic director. I want to make sure those positions are filled. The second thing we’re doing is we’re building out the Innovation District, so we’ll have the cybersecurity building that should be opening up in the fall of ’27. We’re also building out the Health Sciences District, and we’re making big improvements to the science building and to Smith Hall, so I want to see those things come to life. And third, but certainly not least, is we have an aspiration to have a fundraising campaign to raise 350 million so every student who comes to Marshall graduates with no debt and a job, and we’re just really kicking that off, but we’ve got a good start. I want to be here to see that go to fruition.
With the extension of your contract, this will mean that you will serve nearly as much time as president that you did as CEO. Who is President Brad versus CEO Brad?
Well, I ended up serving as CEO for 11 years, and this will be eight for president. So, unless someone surprises me and says you’ve got three more in you, I’ll be a little bit short.
I would say the difference is one was a profession, and one is a purpose. I loved being CEO, I loved Intuit, I loved the people, and we made a big dent in the universe and changed people’s lives. But this is me. This is who built me. This is who we are. This is everything in my life that I would want someone to be able to say, “He was one of us, and, together, we did it.” That’s the purpose.
So, what about Brad from Kenova? Is he still playing the saxophone, perhaps?
I am. For Christmas, my wife surprised me – Santa brought me a new sax. This week, our band director, Chris, sent me “Sons of Marshall” and the alma mater, so I’m actually beginning to practice, and I hope, this year, that I’ll be able to take the field and at least play a song. And I also play guitar every night on the front porch. If you come by, you’ll see me sitting out there playing my guitar, too.
Four and a half years from now, your presidency will be coming to an end, but you still obviously have plenty of time to get involved elsewhere. What’s next for Brad from Kenova?
I’ve learned that you think you have a plan, and then God has another plan for you. And so I would say to you that as far as I can see now, we will continue to be active philanthropists with our Wing 2 Wing Foundation, and a sister organization to the Wing 2 Wing Foundation is Wing 2 Wing Ventures, which we invest dollars in startups here in West Virginia. I will continue to serve on the two boards I serve on, which is Amazon and JPMorgan Chase. So, I’ll have the opportunity to continue to be a part of the tech sector, as well as financial services. And then hopefully I’m going to be, at that point, maybe, a pawpaw. My daughter and my son-in-law may end up having a baby, and I’m just going to be a pawpaw and go to ball games and enjoy life.
It is also rumored that you could run for governor – do you want to speak to that?
You know, I’ve heard that. People have asked me, and I’m humbled that anyone would ever think that I could even be qualified, but that’s not an aspiration. It’s something that I feel really qualified people have the opportunity to do.
For me, coming home was about serving my state but serving my state through my university. I love that I was born in green – Ceredo-Kenova, back in the day, was green and white – and then I went to Marshall, and it was green and white. And I’m going to leave with green and white. That’s the last color I’m going to wear.
Baylee Parsons can be contacted at [email protected].
