After a six-month search for a new budget director, Yale decided to go with in-house experience and hired former associate comptroller Julie Grant.

Grant replaced former director Gary Sax, who announced his retirement last March after a five-year tenure in which the University budget thrived.

Inheriting a $1.4 billion dollar operating budget and a $324 million capital budget, Grant will be in charge of preparing the budget and will report to both the Provost’s office and the office of Finance and Administration.

Grant has extensive experience in the University’s financial and administrative affairs. Although Grant took over as budget director Jan. 1, she has been with Yale since 1994. She started in the medical school before taking a lead role in Yale’s Project X. She most recently served as associate comptroller.

Working on Project X, Grant managed the conversion of University accounts to the new Oracle system in response to the Y2K problem and the need to update the University’s general business systems. Then in the comptroller’s office, Grant worked with all the University departments.

“I have a solid finance background with a Master’s in finance,” Grant said. “When I was on Project X, I managed the conversion of accounts, which meant I had to learn a lot about the accounts. My departments in the comptroller’s office supported — all the University departments, and I know a lot of people around the University.”

Grant said she looks forward to “working with the Provost’s office and seeing things from an academic side.”

“Yale is a very diverse and interesting place and to be able to hear about the programs that are happening, it’s a very rewarding position,” Grant said.

In her new position, Grant will be responsible for converting the Provost’s office requests for allotments into hard numbers.

Sax helped transform Yale’s budget and oversaw its development from producing deficits to generating forecasted surpluses while at the same time increasing Yale’s budget annually.

When Sax announced his retirement last year, University officials had hoped to appoint a successor by the summer. When the school year started, however, the University instead appointed Operating Budget Director Regina Clark to be interim budget director.