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Kris Upton of RPM Group (Finalist: Small Private Company CFO)

2 min read

Kris Upton appreciates that accounting provided the foundation for his business career, but his aspirations went beyond balance sheets, profit and loss statements and depreciation schedules. “I didn’t want to get pigeonholed as the numbers guy,” said Upton.

And he avoided that to become president of Little Rock’s RPM Group, the largest full-service real estate company in central Arkansas. Upton was named RPM president in 2013 after serving as treasurer, chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

“A much larger part of my duties is, as president, to be an ambassador for the company and oversee operations across the company,” he said.

While attending college at Arkansas State University, Upton worked a variety of jobs: lumber salesman, payroll clerk, computer lab specialist and bartender.

A conversation with his boss while working as a lineman at the Jonesboro Municipal Airport caused him to change course. “I boasted of being an international business studies major,” said Upton, who grew up in Stuttgart. “He said if I was serious about business, I should get an accounting degree to gain literacy in conducting business.”

That advice led him to transfer to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1993.

After college, Upton did a brief stint in the Tulsa office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture before moving to Little Rock to join the Frost & Co. accounting firm.

After three years as an auditor, he left to work for Alltel Communications as a manager in the finance department in 1998. Upton held the post of director of investor relations when he moved to RPM in 2003.

His community work includes serving as Life Champs youth football coach, Junior Deputy baseball coach and Junior Achievement volunteer.

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