Fort Smith native Meredith Roberts has been selected as the next senior vice president and chief financial officer of Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. of Springfield, Mo., one of the nation’s largest generation and distribution cooperatives.
Roberts, an accountant with more than 17 years of experience at the cooperative, will take over the post Oct. 1, succeeding David McNabb.
McNabb, who plans to retire at the end of the year, will spend the last three months of 2021 as senior vice president and special adviser to CEO and General Manager David Tudor.
Roberts was McNabb’s hand-picked successor as CFO.
Tudor said in a news release that Roberts’ deep experience in the financial strategies and tactics of the cooperative system made her the ideal candidate for the new post leading the Accounting and Finance Division and overseeing “future efforts to maintain Associated’s financial health.”
The company has “a strong succession plan used as a guide when challenges like a retiring CFO occur,” Tudor said. “We are fortunate that Dave prepared Meredith for this opportunity, making the decision on her selection clear.”
During her AECI career, Roberts led financial reporting and analysis, accounting and budgeting, and contributed to resource planning, and she oversees a team of 17 accounting and finance professions.
Roberts, who has an accounting bachelor’s from Missouri State University and an MBA from Drury University, is a certified public accountant. Before joining AECI, she worked as a supervisor for BKD CPA & Advisors, a top 15 accounting and consulting firm in the nation. She started her career with Ernst & Young.
Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., owned by a system of six regional transmission cooperatives and their 51 local distribution cooperatives, delivers wholesale power to those cooperatives, powering 935,000 meters in Missouri, northeast Oklahoma and southeast Iowa.
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