Get Your Tickets to the 2021 CFO of the Year Awards Luncheon

Editor’s note: The deadline to purchase tickets for the awards luncheon is approaching. Click here to reserve your seat. 

Arkansas Business has announced the 2021 CFO of the Year finalists and Lifetime Achievement Award winners. 

This year, Vickie Judy of America’s Car-Mart Inc. of Rogers has earned the CFO Lifetime Achievement Award, and Johnny McCaleb of Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in Accounting.

This is the 12th year Arkansas Business has honored outstanding CFOs from around the state. Nomination forms were submitted to an independent panel of judges who met in July to determine finalists and winners.

Presented by Hogan Taylor, the 2021 CFO of the Year Awards will be a hybrid awards ceremony that will feature an exclusive CFO roundtable of winners in each category. Broadcasting live on Nov. 3 from the DoubleTree Little Rock, Arkansas Business Publisher Mitch Bettis and Editor Lance Turner will highlight what sets these finalists apart, especially in uncertain times.

Video: Click here to watch last year’s CFO of the Year Awards.

Finalists and winners in each category will be honored at the Nov. 3 event, and their profiles will be published in a special supplement of Arkansas Business on Oct. 18. In-person and virtual ticket packages are available for purchase at arkansasbusiness.com/CFO. 

CFO of the Year 2021 Finalists

CFO Lifetime Achievement Award:

• Vickie Judy, America’s Car-Mart Inc.

Lifetime Achievement Award in Accounting:

• Johnny McCaleb, Simmons Bank

Education CFO Finalists:

• Gloria Arcia, University of the Ozarks
• Julie Bates, Arkansas State University System
• Jason Tolbert, Ouachita Baptist University

Bank CFO Finalists:

• Leslie Lowery, Merchants and Planters Bank
• Jonathan McNair, First Western Bank
• Karen Shaw, Citizens Bank

Hospital CFO Finalists:

• Melodie Colwell, Drew Memorial Health System
• Bill Craig, Howard Memorial Hospital
• Shawna Ives, White River Health System
• Beth Lutes, Ozarks Community Hospital

Nonprofit Organization CFO Finalists: 

• Jarod Bridges, Youth Home Inc.
• Barbara McCrory, The Centers for Youth and Families
• Corey Moline, Arkansas Community Foundation
• Patricia Vangilder, United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas

Public Sector CFO Finalists:

• Jami Fisher, Arkansas Game & Fish
• Sara Lenehan, city of Little Rock
• Jeff Mascagni, Central Arkansas Water

Small Private Company CFO Finalists:

• Scott Dendler, Assembled Products Corp.
• Maggie Hogan, Kelley Commercial Partners
• Stuart McLendon, DYNE Hospitality Group
• Scott Rosenberg, Travel Nurse Across America

Large Private Company CFO Finalists:

• Dick Fletcher, CTEH LLC
• Daniel McAdoo, Hytrol
• Jane Mote, Southern Marketing Affiliates

For more information on the CFO of the Year Awards program, visit or contact Kelli Roy at kroy@abpg.com, (501) 455-9336.