DENTON (UNT), Texas – University of North Texas President Neal Smatresk appointed Finley Graves as the university's provost and vice president of academic affairs. This two-year appointment follows Graves' service as interim academic leader since March 1.
"Dr. Graves' leadership has effectively advanced some of our major institutional initiatives," Smatresk said.
"His ongoing service will bring more continuity and stability to the executive leadership team during this dynamic phase in our university's evolution, especially as we strive toward national prominence and continue to improve our academic and research enterprise."
A licensed accountant with Ph.D.s in both accounting and Germanic languages and literatures, Graves said he welcomes the opportunity to enhance the academic experience and highlight the scholastic endeavors at UNT.
"As provost and vice president for academic affairs, I look forward to supporting our university community as we continue to grow, excel, and move toward tier one status," Graves said.
Prior to his interim appointment, Graves served as dean of UNT's College of Business from 2007 to 2015. Graves twice successfully led the college through the AASCB International accreditation process, and oversaw the design and 2012 opening of the $70 million Business Leadership Building, constructed to accommodate the growth of the college. Also under his administration, the logistics aviation program, the first of its kind, launched in 2010, and the college received several major recognitions, including Best Graduate Schools of 2013 by U.S. News and World Report for the part-time MBA program.
Graves arrived at UNT in 2002 as a professor of accounting and chairman of the accounting department. He received the 2006 Council of Business Students Faculty of the Year Award, and in 2010 he received the Federation of Schools of Accountancy's Joseph A. Silvoso Faculty Merit Award.
Prior to joining UNT, Graves was professor and head of the Department of Accounting at Kansas State University, professor of accounting at the University of Mississippi and visiting professor of accounting at the University of Newcastle in Australia. He also was a faculty member at the University of Alabama, where he served as chair of the Department of German and Russian. At Ole Miss he was named the School of Accountancy's Outstanding Teacher and Outstanding Researcher twice each. Also at Ole Miss, he received the campus-wide Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship.
Graves is a certified public accountant licensed in Mississippi. He was a staff accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) before joining the accounting faculty at Ole Miss.
He earned a Ph.D. in 1985 and a master's in accounting in 1979, both at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa. Earlier, he earned a Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literatures from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master of arts degree in modern German literature from Rice University and a bachelor's degree in modern languages from the University of Mississippi.