W. Ellis Arnold III has been chosen to fill a new position at Hendrix College in Conway: senior executive vice president, dean of advancement and general counsel. He has served as acting president of the college since J. Timothy Cloyd’s resignation in February 2013.
“Ellis Arnold has provided rock solid leadership the past year as the college searched for its 11th president,” David Knight, chairman of the Hendrix Board of Trustees, said in a news release.
Hendrix College first approached Arnold with a job in 1990 as vice president for development and college relations, a position that included communications, fundraising and marketing. He also worked as general counsel at the time. In 1996, Arnold became president of Lambuth University in Jackson, Tennessee.
Following his time at Lambuth, he was president and head of school at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock in 2004, a job he kept until 2008 when he returned to his alma mater, Hendrix. Arnold became acting president at Hendrix for nine months in 2010.
Arnold graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hendrix in 1979. He then attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Arnold practiced law after obtaining his Juris Doctor and was co-founder of Arnold Lax & Vaughan, now Lax Vaughan Fortson & McKenzie, in Little Rock.
