UA tech officer to take on role as finance chief

University’s internal search decides McCoy right for job

FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s top information officer has been named top finance officer after an internal search, a hire whose job experience differs from many in similar positions at other universities.

Chris McCoy, hired in 2015 to lead UA’s information-technology services, starts Aug. 2 in his new role as vice chancellor for finance and administration, according to an announcement Tuesday from the university.

McCoy, 56, replaces Tim O’Donnell, 60, who is retiring effective Aug. 1, which UA had announced earlier.

Described by UA in 2015 as having 27 years of information-technology experience, McCoy earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa and a master’s in systems engineering as well as a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Iowa State University, according to UA.

In his new role he will oversee seven units within the university, including financial affairs and business affairs.

Chancellor Joe Steinmetz made the hiring decision after a recommendation from a university advisory committee, UA spokesman Steve Voorhies said. McCoy will earn a yearly salary of $260,000 in his new role, up from the $215,250 he is earning as the associate vice chancellor for information-technology services and chief information officer.

In a statement, Steinmetz said McCoy has spent the past eight years “leading technology development and business alignment for enterprise resource planning.”

Enterprise resource planning is the name given to information technology aimed at integrating various parts of business operations, and UA System leaders have said campuses are implementing the technology. The UA System website describes enterprise resource planning implementation as aiming to replace and update finance, procurement, human capital management, payroll and student administration systems.

Steinmetz said McCoy’s

“experience in this area will serve us well as we begin to implement the project and modernize our financial and human resources processes.”

Karen Goldstein, a higher-education executive search consultant and financial consultant not involved with the UA search, said that as schools move to enterprise resource planning, sometimes abbreviated to ERP, “they’re often asking candidates how much experience they’ve had in implementing new ERPs, because that’s important as far as making everything be successful.”

But “it certainly isn’t common that someone goes from CIO to CFO,” Goldstein said, though “occasional candidates” with such a background get hired.

A strong candidate often has a master of business administration and “the educational experience as well as work experience to manage a broad range of finance and administrative functions,” said Goldstein, formerly vice president for business and finance at Davidson College in

North Carolina.

The job is “really responsible for everything except academics and student life, and that’s a pretty broad role,” Goldstein said, adding that the person at a public university also must be able to communicate an institution’s financial needs with a

governing board or with state legislators.

Schools including the University of Kansas, the University of Tennessee and Louisiana State University describe their top finance officers as having years of experience working with budgets or finance.

Diane Goddard, vice provost for finance and chief finance officer at the University of Kansas, previously worked for about 10 years as the school’s comptroller. Her “principal responsibility included maintaining institutional fiscal integrity and accountability.”

Chris Cimino, vice chancellor for finance and administration at the University of Tennessee, worked for two years as chief budget officer for the University of Tennessee system before stepping into the vice chancellor’s role. Before that, Cimino worked in other finance-related posts, including assistant director of finance for the Knoxville, Tenn., campus.

Daniel Layzell, vice president for finance and administration at Louisiana State University, previously worked about four years as vice president for finance and planning at Illinois State University.

At the University of Mississippi, Texas A&M University and Auburn University, the top financial officers are certified public accountants, according to biographical statements published by the schools.

Before joining UA, McCoy worked at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, where he was the school’s top information officer.

In an email, McCoy said that over the past 20 years his roles “have included significant budget experience at multiple institutions,” and called it a “misconception” that his new job is “a purely financial role.”

Mark Rushing, a UA spokesman, said in an email that the job “requires financial oversight and administrative experience leading the internal, non-academic services the university requires to function effectively.”

McCoy “will lead a finance and administration team that includes an associate vice chancellor for budget and financial planning, and an assistant vice chancellor for finance and administration,” Rushing said.

Advisory committee members helping with the internal search were Mark Power, vice chancellor for advancement; Matt Waller, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business; Gary Gunderman, executive director of institutional research; Debbie McLoud, associate vice chancellor for human resources; Steve Gahagans, director of the university’s police department; and Mike White, associate vice chancellor for finance.

O’Donnell’s salary as UA’s top financial officer is $283,250, a UA spokesman has said.

The university announced that a search is taking place for a new chief information officer.