Staff Spotlight: Daniel Michael, Controller

By Sandy Cyr, NC Rural Center Communication Manager

People who go into accounting are often the types that like to be behind the scenes, according to Daniel Michael. As the controller for the Rural Center, Daniel isn’t interested in trying to be the loudest person in the room or participate in interactions where the loudest person wins. Instead, he prefers to be able to convince people with facts.?

“Accounting kind of fits me well because you just have numbers,” he explains. While the numbers do tell a story, the role of a controller is to interpret what the numbers are telling you rather than to make the story from them.?

In his undergraduate pursuits, Daniel majored in psychology at Eastern Carolina University. While he appreciated his education, he knew he was not suited for a career in psychology. Upon graduation, he worked a variety of jobs at grocery stores, coffee shops, and restaurants in Raleigh, and then in Austin, Texas.?

In Texas, he enrolled in a community college and began taking accounting classes. The work came easy to him, and he found it fascinating, so he decided to return to Raleigh where he enrolled in NC State University’s masters of accounting program. After receiving his CPA, he began his accounting career at the North Carolina State Auditor’s office.??

?Daniel joined the Finance team at the Rural Center in March 2019. In this role, he is responsible for managing a multitude of complex accounting functions, including cash management, overseeing the various financial activities of five different lending programs, facilitating audits, and working closely with the chief financial officer to review monthly financial information.?

“The work is really interesting,” says Daniel. “Because of the complexity of the work, it keeps it from getting boring. It's not just one thing. We get new programs all the time, new things to learn, new auditors to deal with. A lot of accounting is repetitive because you're closing month after month after month but I've been lucky to work around a lot of people since I've been here. You get to see a lot of things and you never feel like things are just staying the same for long.”

Although he is most at home working behind the scenes, when asked what he enjoys most about being at the Rural Center, Daniel responds without hesitation, “The people. They are really good to work with and everybody's nice and interesting. Everybody's been very supportive of teaching employees, and letting people grow. I've learned so much since I've been here and I'm an entirely different person today because of it.”?