Kyle Jen

Background

About Kyle Jen

Kyle Jen is a Director with Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) Public Sector Services in Detroit. He specializes in state and local government financial planning, strategy, and management. His work at A&M has included supporting a large state public health department in assessing, stabilizing, and transforming its grant and financial management functions following the influx of federal COVID-19-related funds. Prior to joining A&M, Kyle spent three years working for Oakland County in Michigan as Chief Financial Officer and Director of Management and Budget. He implemented budget process improvements to create a more transparent, structurally balanced $1 billion budget and revised its fund balance policy to better protect against future economic downturns. He also guided the successful implementation of an enterprise-wide financial system that had been delayed. Previously, Kyle spent over 20 years in key budget roles for the State of Michigan. As Deputy State Budget Director for four years, he oversaw the development of $60 billion annual budget recommendations while managing the transition of the State Budget Office between governors of different political parties. In 2020, he played a lead role building and negotiating a bipartisan plan to balance the state budget in response to projected pandemic-driven revenue losses of over $3 billion. Prior to that, he worked for the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency, where he provided financial expertise to members of the State House of Representatives as they confronted budget shortfalls and other complex fiscal matters. Kyle is an active member of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and an honorary member of the National Association of State Budget Officers. His writing on putting the principle of structural budget balance into practice has been featured in GFOA’s Government Finance Review. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from Michigan State University.