Charles is President/CEO for Charles R. Smith Consulting, LLC. A company he founded in June 2018 after retiring from Texas state government. His primary practice areas are healthcare, technology, and human services where he has thirty years of state government experience.
Charles created relationships with many business leaders, state executives, and legislators. He has a state and national reputation for being a man of high integrity and honesty, improving operations, thoughtfully using technology to increase efficiencies, creatively resolving problems, and fiscal stewardship. He is a frequent speaker at state, regional, and national conferences.
Charles spent more than twenty-six years in Texas Child Support Division at the Office of the Attorney General. He worked his way up from caseworker to division director. Along the way, he established a long history of partnership with HHSC staff at the local, regional, and state levels to outreach TANF, Medicaid, WIC, and SNAP recipients who could benefit from child support services. Throughout his career at CSD, Charles was a frequent speaker at HHSC meetings and trainings. Under his direction as Director of Field Operations from 2004-2013, the program rose to become the highest performing child support program in the nation. He served as the Director of Child Support from 2013-2015.
Charles was appointed to serve as the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s (HHSC) Chief Deputy Executive Commissioner in July 2015 and became Executive Commissioner effective June 1, 2016. As Executive Commissioner, Charles oversaw the Texas’ Health and Human Services system agencies consisting of a $40 Billion annual budget and 50,000 employees serving 7.5 million Texans in more than 600 programs that included child welfare, Medicaid, WIC, SNAP, mental health, regulatory, and aging. During his tenure at HHSC, Charles successfully consolidated agencies and improved its overall efficiency and accountability to Texas citizens as directed by the state legislature. In December 2017, he successfully negotiated a federal waiver with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that will bring $30+ Billion in healthcare funding to Texas.
Charles presently serves on the board for several private companies and non-profit associations/organizations. He has worked on, led, or overseen many efforts and campaigns associated with public awareness, outreach, and marketing.
Charles is a proud graduate of Texas Tech University.
