April M. Smith Email & Phone Number

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Area

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Area

Chesapeake Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 company and one of the nation’s largest producers of petroleum and natural gas. With a financial structure that includes broad-range accountabilities to investors, land owners, support partners, and federal, state, and local agencies, I managed more than $34M annually in regulated royalty valuation and reporting to ONRR and to the states of Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and Wyoming. I led a talented 7-member team and partnered extensively with internal divisions to manage projects with a key focus on risk mitigation, cost reduction, reporting, analysis, and divestiture transition management.Through development of project plans and leveraging queries to assess revenues and expenses, I steered resolution of backlogs in prior-period adjustments with a $30M+ impact. I also partnered with other department leaders in the analysis and cleansing of abundant system data prior to integration to SAP PRA.I served as a subject matter expert (SME) and key go-to resource for numerous divisions, leadership, junior staff, and our legal division, assisting in litigation procedures as a trial witness.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Area

Overseeing company’s revenue distribution, I managed financial administration of incoming revenues and up to $10B in annual distributions. My team consisted of 4 direct and 36 indirect reports overseeing accruals, legal support, audits, reporting, investigation/research, and distribution. As the company grew and added new assets (acquisitions and contracts), I led the integration of financial instruments into our revenue processes, policies, and procedures. Additionally, I led variance and trend analyses on Chesapeake’s revenue accruals.To support quarterly and annual reporting, I partnered very closely with external auditors, researching records to address specific auditor requests and implementing changes in processes when needed. As a mentor, I trained staff in execution of all directives to support the goals of our leadership.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Area

Beginning initially as a staff accountant, I advanced rapidly into management, leading a staff and acquiring increasing responsibility for higher-level accounting functions. I processed up to $8B annually in revenue distribution, allocated funds, determined tax payables, managed the general ledger (GL), and supervised collections for accounts receivable (AR).As my division grew from 9 to 35 associates, I assisted with full-cycle recruiting processes and was promoted to oversee this team, leading them in processing more than $600M in monthly revenue accruals. We also researched and resolved ledger/sub-ledger discrepancies.