The past year has ushered in plenty of new faces for prominent Conway offices. The University of Central Arkansas welcomed a new president, Conway Corp introduced a new CEO and the city of Conway elected a new mayor. Let us make the introductions easier with brief bios of Conway’s newest movers and shakers.
Bret Carroll
CEO, Conway Corp
In early 2017, Conway Corp announced Bret Carroll as its new CEO. Carroll will replace Richard Arnold, who will retire May 31. Carroll is the company’s chief financial officer and will be the sixth person to lead the organization in its 88-year history. He will take on his new role of CEO on June 1.
Carroll holds a bachelor’s of business administration in accounting and a master’s of business administration in finance from the University of Central Arkansas. He is recognized by the American Public Power Association as a certified public power manager and serves on the board of directors for the Mid-America Cable and Telecommunication Association and as chairman of the Arkansas Municipal Power Association Accounting, Finance and Customer Service group.
Bart Castleberry
Mayor, Conway
Conway native Bart Castleberry beat two other candidates to win the mayoral election in 2016. Before becoming mayor, Castleberry served as the Conway fire chief. When he joined the Class V department it had 34 people. In two decades under his leadership, the Conway Fire Department became one of fewer than 2,000 municipal fire departments in the country rated Class II with 107 uniformed personnel and seven stations.
After he retired as fire chief, previous mayor Tab Townsell asked Castleberry to lead the city’s building permits, inspection, and code enforcement office. As a result, Conway re-evaluated its re-inspection fee structure, required licensed building inspectors in each field for inspections, and dramatically reduced the turnaround time for permits and inspections.
Houston Davis
President, University of Central Arkansas
Houston D. Davis is the new president of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, making him the 11th person to hold the title. Davis joined the 109-year-old university from Kennesaw State University in Georgia where he was interim president. He replaced Tom Courtway, who stepped down to return to teaching.
Davis previously worked as the executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer at the University System of Georgia, vice chancellor for academic affairs at Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, project director and principal investigator for the National Educational Needs Project, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Tennessee Board of Regents and associate vice president for academic affairs and assistant professor at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee.
See more about Conway’s economic growth at Outlook Conway.
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