Arkansas State University - Newport

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November 2016

ASUN's Adair Named Education CFO of the Year by Arkansas Business

Adam Adair - Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration accepting award

Adam Adair, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration at Arkansas State University-Newport, was named Education/Public Sector Arkansas CFO of the Year by Arkansas Business at a luncheon held Wednesday in Little Rock. 

The awards are part of an annual event produced by Arkansas Business that honors lifetime achievements and chief financial officers in several categories.  Other finalists in the Education/Public Sector category were Sara Lenehan, financial director for the city of Little Rock, and Dorethea Yates, financial director and treasurer for the city of Hot Springs.

“Mr. Adair has a value-added instinct, constantly benchmarking and researching best practices to support institutional excellence, and to help ASU-Newport remain one of the leading two-year colleges in the state,” said Dr. Sandra Massey, Chancellor at Arkansas State University-Newport.  “He has been instrumental in establishing a culture of cost-consciousness at the institution.  While highly-educated, motivated and skilled, I most appreciate his sincere concern for the welfare and success of the students at ASU-Newport.”

Since coming to ASU-Newport in 2012, Adair has spearheaded the college’s development of a comprehensive master plan, and is currently overseeing ASUN’s transition to a new Enterprise Resource Planning system, the software that manages all aspects of student services and data.  Adair is also responsible for ASUN’s implementation of a zero-based budgeting model that led to a cost savings of approximately $500,000 in the first year.  He has also been heavily involved in several construction projects on all three of ASU-Newport’s campuses, including energy efficient upgrades at several of ASUN’s facilities, resulting in annual decreases in college’s energy consumption.

“We are actually changing lives,” Adair told Arkansas Business.  “Every day what we do impacts the lives of not only the students we serve, but their families, their children and their children’s children…That’s why I love what I do and am honored to be doing this.”

Adair earned his degree in Accounting from Arkansas State University, and his MBA from The University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  He is also a graduate of the Next Generation of Chief Business Officers Institute program presented by the Southern Association of College & University Business Officers, and is a graduate of the Arkansas Community Colleges Leadership Institute.