Keen currently serves as the Budget and Finance Manager at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, where he has been employed since 2016. He has extensive experience in budget development, contract and reporting management, procurement management and payroll processing.
Keen was raised in Smyth County in Southwest Virginia and graduated from Marion Senior High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Radford University with a major in History with a minor in Political Science. He met his wife, Brooke, at Radford and they moved to Roanoke upon graduation.
“Prior to my job at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, I worked in operations at Lawrence Transportation in Botetourt County,” Keen said. “I was responsible for the planning and logistics of their flatbed fleet division. I quickly found that the aspects of my job that I favored most were finance-related responsibilities. After working at Lawrence for about two years, I made the determination to focus my next career in finance.
“During my time at BRBH, I have been promoted twice internally and currently oversee a variety of budget activities, the contract process, payroll, purchasing, insurance administration and a few other responsibilities as the Budget and Finance Manager,” Keen said. “I have always had an interest in governmental activities and have found that decisions made at the local level can have the greatest benefit on a community. I believe this position (Director of Finance for the Town of Vinton) to be an amazing opportunity which will allow me to continue my work in both finance and community service.”
Keen and his wife have been married for six years and have a two-year-old son, Bridger, “who is the light of our lives. We have a dog, Palmer, a couple of rescue cats, and several fish that were adopted from the previous owner when we purchased our home. We live in the Fincastle area of Botetourt County.”
In his free time, Keen likes to travel, play golf, and spend time at the lake.
“I am incredibly excited about taking on this new opportunity,” Keen says. “There are so many awesome things going on in Vinton right now and the team members I have met thus far have been so welcoming, genuine, and community focused. I am thrilled to be a part of the growth and development that Vinton is undergoing and am so optimistic about Vinton’s future.”
Vinton Assistant Town Manager Cody Sexton has been serving as interim Finance Director and Town Treasurer since Anne Cantrell resigned in March to accept a position in Bedford, closer to her family.
Sexton will continue to serve as town treasurer on an interim basis to allow Keen time to assume his new duties as Finance Director, assist with the closeout of the utility system transfer with the Western Virginia Water Authority, get acclimated to the financial software conversion, and prepare for the annual financial audit visit in August.