University of Arkansas System CFO Tara Smith
Tara Smith has been named CFO of the University of Arkansas System.
Smith takes over on March 1 for Gina Terry, who retired Jan. 31 after more than 20 years with the UA System. Terry was recognized at the 2019 Arkansas Business CFO of the Year Awards.
“Ms. Terry did a tremendous job leading the UA System’s finances and helped guide the system and its many campuses, divisions and units through countless challenging endeavors over the last five years, and she will be missed,” System President Donald Bobbitt said in a news release.
Smith of North Little Rock is currently the finance and procurement lead with the UA System’s ongoing enterprise resource planning project implementation. She was previously the CFO and vice chancellor for finance at the University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College.
Before Smith joined the UA System, she held positions at the Arkansas Department of Higher Education including deputy director and senior associate director of institutional finance. She was Pulaski Technical College’s director of institutional research in 2011-12.
Smith holds a master’s in business administration and a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“I’m grateful Ms. Smith is willing to take on the challenges and responsibilities our finance wing presents, and her experience — not only within the UA System but in higher education as a whole — gives me great confidence she’s the right fit for the job,” Bobbitt said.
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