ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Charles I. Budd (Chuck) is a principal of Budd Management Systems in Atlanta, Georgia. His career began in computer programming and grew into executive management. He has been CEO of Financial Information Trust in Des Moines; president of International Computer Systems, Inc., in Akron; president of Technology Connections, Inc., in Atlanta; senior project manager for Softlab Enabling Technologies, also in Atlanta; and operations vice president for Intercontinental Computing, Inc., in Kansas City.

Chuck is a Project Management Professional and an Earned Value Professional. He currently is developing project management automation tools, consulting on information systems projects, conducting seminars, and writing with his coauthor, Charlene S. Budd. He has taught webinar classes and conducted workshops and presentations around the world. Some of his international consulting engagements included major system remediation projects in the United States, Germany, and South Africa, where he began using earned value management concepts.

Chuck is active in several civic volunteer organizations, the Project Management Institute, the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering, and information systems organizations. He is a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College, has been certified a Systems Analyst by the Foundation for Administration Research, attended MBA classes at Drake University, and has a graduate degree from Baylor University.

Charlene Spoede Budd (Charli), PhD, is professor emeritus of accounting at Baylor University, where she has taught graduate management accounting and graduate project management classes. She has a PhD in business administration and holds certifications as a CPA, CMA, CFM, PMP, and all six professional categories of the Theory of Constraints.

Her research has been published primarily in practitioner journals, and she has been awarded three Certificates of Merit for articles (one of which explained why multi-project management is an essential skill for management accountants) published in Strategic Finance. She also has published in Today’s CPA, The Counselor, other journals, and many conference proceedings. She has authored or coauthored several accounting books.

Charli is active in several professional organizations, including the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the American Accounting Association, the Financial Executives Institute, and the Project Management Institute. She also has been an active member of the Finance and Metrics Committee of the TOC-ICO (Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization) and assisted the AICPA in developing questions and simulations for the Business Environment component of the computerized CPA examinations.