About Me

In High School, I was an average student. And by average, I mean I was ranked smack dab in the middle of my graduating class, numbering close to 400 classmates. But heck, there were things I wanted to do, and homework just was not one of them. I played football, and though I was not very good, I absolutely loved the sport. I excelled much more at wrestling. 

A fascinating sport, wrestling. It is one where you compete both individually and as a team. Beyond strength and technique, wrestling requires a commitment to personal responsibility, sportsmanship, and teamwork. Competing head-to-head, personal victory is dependent solely on you. Team victory is based on the accumulated points of each teammate's results. Winning for yourself is great, but winning for the team is greater still. Wrestling provides the quintessential life lessons of personal responsibility, teamwork, and perseverance.

Even as an average student in high school, I was admitted to college at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), where I began studies as an agriculture major. Near the end of my freshman year, I came to the realization, without having access to a family farm, my chances of becoming a farmer would be challenging at best. Changing my major to Business Management resulted. I chose business for all the wrong reasons, but an epiphany awaited. Those wrong reasons? A degree in business only required one semester of calculus, and math was not my strong suit. One semester, though? Surely I could handle that. What I did not then realize, accounting, operations research, finance, and statistics were all essentially math courses. But, something happened I wish I had a better explanation for. It all began to click, to make sense. I did well, making the Dean's list every semester. 

Part of a Business Management curriculum involved taking a BASIC programming class. Programming clicked, too. I loved it. It was the ultimate application of logic and procedure to make a machine do my bidding. As an elective course, I took another computer class, COBOL, and then another. Without really intending to do so, I ended up having enough information systems credits to complete my degree with double majors in Business Management and Information Technology.

Near the end of college, it was customary to look for permanent employment during your final semester. Some of my friends took on that task sooner than I did. Conversations with them about their experiences were disappointing. They were not finding the kinds of opportunities I had anticipated heading into the working world, degree in hand. As a result, I decided to enroll in Xavier University’s MBA program to improve my standing as a job candidate. Getting accepted at Xavier was relatively simple having graduated EKU "with distinction," what other universities refer to as summa cum laude.

Xavier’s MBA program also involves declaring a major. Having double majored at EKU, I again chose two: Finance, and as you may guess, Information Technology. During my graduate work at Xavier, I was introduced to a recruiter from GE Aerospace. A year into the MBA program, I took a job as a systems analyst at GE, completing my MBA a year later, graduating with a 3.8 GPA. I had come a long way since my middle-of-the-pack performance in high school.

My career has been focused on helping Fortune 500 and 1,000 companies solve their technical problems related to data analytics, data administration, and data governance. I suppose you might say my career focus has been centered on data. 

After completing my undergraduate studies at EKU, I worked as a Systems Analyst with GE Aerospace, the division responsible for manufacturing jet engines. Working in the expansive plant that stretched for what seemed like miles along Interstate 75 in Evendale, OH, was exhilarating. I was chosen to participate in GE's Information Systems Management Program (ISMP), where GE's business units from around the world selected four to six individuals from their information technology teams for a two-year training program that would fast-track participants on a management career trajectory. One of my ISMP assignments was to automate GE's progress billing system. Jet engine contracts, particularly for the DoD, were long-running and involved hundreds of millions of dollars. There were contract provisions enabling GE to bill customers upon reaching contract milestones. The tracking and accounting for progress billing had previously been done manually. On the first use of my automation system, it identified $130 million of progress billing that had been previously missed. 

Finding that much unbilled revenue earned me an "Atta boy," which was quickly followed up with,  "Now get  back to work!"

Despite the attraction of having a career-long opportunity with GE, I was recruited by a software company as one of their systems engineers two years after having completed my master’s in business administration. In the software world, systems engineers are attached to the sales organizations. Systems Engineers had the responsibility of understanding an organization's technical requirements and solving them using our software product's capabilities. Doing so required demonstrating the technology’s ability to satisfy a potential buyer's success criteria. During my recruitment process, the gentleman who would become my mentor asked, “Ken, what do you see yourself doing in five years?” During our discussion of my five-year vision, I commented that the one thing I did not want to do was be a salesperson. After all, what kid ever says, “I want to be a salesman when I grow up!” But what I didn't then understand was what being an “Account Executive” really means in the enterprise software industry. As a Systems Engineer, I got first-hand exposure to the reality of sales, and the rest is history.

An enterprise software sales role provides the opportunity to work with many of the biggest companies there are. You get to understand what makes them tick. You learn what's important to their stakeholders. You form relationships with their senior management teams, understanding each person's needs and their personal wins. You get to understand the personal and corporate financial value associated with solving the problem. Strategic problem solving in enterprise software requires creating a roadmap to success using technology to solve an organization’s challenges. The responsibility is both intellectually enriching and personally rewarding, having a front-row seat to witness their accomplishments. What most don’t realize, success in enterprise sales requires listening and collaboration far more than it requires talking, a skill and habit I will continue practicing for District 118.

Having sales and sales management roles at some of the most leading-edge software companies has allowed me to help many companies solve many problems. A few of them include: 

• Insurance: State Farm, Allstate, USAA, Nationwide, and Auto Owners
• Manufacturing: GM, Chrysler, Ford, Toyota, Lexmark, Dow Chemical, GE, and Boeing
• Fast service restaurants: Yum Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut) and Chipotle
• Energy: Exxon/Mobil, American Electric Power, BP, Technip FMC, and various      exploration-only companies
• Retail: Kroger, Limited Brands, and Walmart
• Financial services: Bank One, Huntington, Fidelity, and Aon
• Government: Air Force, DoD, SOCOM, State of KY, State of OH, and USGS 

I have built a career out of identifying and solving problems. Electing me as your Representative will grant me the honor of doing the same with you. 

In September of 2022, I decided to pursue independent consulting to help small or startup companies establish their sales organizations by providing fractional sales management expertise. I am the founder of MarxBrown Consulting. I've had clients in Toronto, Canada; Wroclaw, Poland; Paris, France; and right here in Waynesville, NC, to name a few.

Fractional Sales Management solves the problems small businesses face hiring and retaining professional sales managers by providing contract-based sales management expertise. 

The fractional sales manager is a shared resource who, in my case, splits time across no more than four different non-competitive businesses to establish an unimpeded path to revenue success. 

MarxBrown Consulting has allowed me to leverage my experience in more intimate ways than large organizations can provide. The rewards on a personal level have been remarkable.

I grew up in Cincinnati, OH. Tom and Dee Brown are Mom & Dad, Scott is my older brother, and Erin is my younger sister. Yep, I'm a middle child!! Despite the struggles associated with being a lower-middle-class family, my childhood was idyllic, for me anyway. Mom & Dad were amazing at never making us kids part of the family's financial struggles. Dad had a few jobs before my memory, and was a home builder during my adolescence.
 

Though Dad was successful, it was not success at a level adequate for his building business to weather the storm of the inflationary crisis of the 1970s. Mom's and Dad's ethics would not permit them to entertain the idea of bankruptcy. Dad found a job and worked his tail off providing for the family and paying off business debts. His job was short-lived as that company shut down. However, the clients he was able to nurture said they would stick with him if he ventured out on his own. Entrepreneurship again, but this time with tremendous success during the Reagan years. That success sustained Mom & Dad for the rest of Dad's life. It still provides for Mom, now 91 years old and doing well.
 

My wife Beth and I married in 1998, bought our home in the White Oak area of Haywood County in 2000, and became permanent residents in 2005. Beth, as many already know, is a photographer here in WNC. Her studio is located in Maggie Valley.
 

Beth and I met in the software industry, where she also worked before opening her business. As a photographer, she brings that same business acumen to bear not only as an entrepreneur but also in service to her business clients, many of whom are realtors, hotel owners, or vacation rental property managers. Beth is a fantastic person, wife, and businesswoman. She is her own brand and has a well-earned reputation for excellence.
 

To escape the workaday world, we live in White Oak, as mentioned. Our home is a small log cabin in the woods. To call it rural would be something of an understatement. But, it is emblematic of our love of the outdoors and this mountain way of life.
 

We are the proud parents of two young, rambunctious rescue mutts, Lucy and Bucky, and one rescue cat, Smokey. We do not have children of the human sort, but have been exceptionally close with our nieces and nephews.

Although appearing at the bottom of this page, at the top of my heart is my faith. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and the hope of the world, if only the world would listen. Beth and I have been members of Maggie Valley United Methodist Church since 2005 and currently attend Peachtree Community Church. While at Maggie Methodist, both of us were highly active in church life. I served as their Board Chair for some eight or nine years. At Peachtree, we both sing in the choir. I have to say, as a choir in a small rural church, we punch well above our weight. You're welcome to come check it out.
 

As you might guess from the accompanying picture, both Beth and I love riding motorcycles! And what better place to do it than right here in WNC? We have gorgeous mountain roads, scenic waterways and waterfalls, amazing vistas, and even a motorcycle museum!
 

I also served for four years on the Haywood Pathways board of directors. What a great organization caring for the underserved, providing a hand up rather than simply a hand out.
 

You know what they say, the biggest fear in life is not death, but public speaking. And not that I'm fearless, I regard it more like a rollercoaster. It's indeed terrifying, also thrilling. It is for that reason that I have participated in Toastmasters International. I remain nervous speaking publicly, but still enjoy it despite my nerves (not to imply that I'm all that good at it). Feel free to visit any Haywood Community Band performance where I am honored to serve as their MC.
 

If you come knocking at our home or business and no one answers, chances are you can find us chilling at a campground somewhere. It's an activity that, for some odd reason, we find remarkable. There's something cathartic about the simplicity while enjoying the outdoors and all that it offers. 

I’ve been a lifelong conservative and primarily a Republican. I remember attending presidential campaign rallies with the whole family as a kid. The first election I voted in was in 1981, which saw Ronald Reagan become the 40th President of the United States. It was an exciting time for the country and for me personally. Going to college in Richmond, KY, I had to register there. I recall the then state-of-the-art election booth that contained levers to pull, indicating your ballot selections. How time flies!
 

Following Barack Obama’s election, I became active in the Haywood County Tea Party. During the early days of the Tea Party, it was made up of all manner of folks, Republicans, Independents, and Democrats, all who were concerned about President Obama’s idea of "fundamentally transforming" the nation. Over time, the Tea Party's direction shifted. Not being a person who engages in public protests, I chose to discontinue that affiliation.
 

Towards the end of 2017, the local Republican Party experienced some division. I was not an active participant in party activities at the time, but neither did I want to choose sides. As a result, I changed my voting status to Independent, though my conservative values remained.
 

In 2024 and into 2025, like many of you, I have grown dissatisfied with our representation in Raleigh. I’m not a believer in complaining without also offering a solution.   In this case, I feel my representation will be that solution. As a result, I’ve changed my party affiliation back to Republican in order to challenge Mr. Pless in the 2026 primary.