Gary Newton, a former chamber of commerce executive who last year established Arkansas Learns, a private-sector alliance for excellence in education, is taking on a new role.
He will also serve as president and chief executive officer of the Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation.
Newton, 51, replaces Luke Gordy, who retired as the foundation director June 30 after serving in the position since 2004.
The Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation - established in 2003 by a small group of the state’s leading business executives - describes itself as an organization that advocates for a statewide public school system that is transparent and accountable and thus enables parents to make informed decisions about their children’s education.
Newton said in an interview Wednesday that the purposes of Arkansas Learns and the older Arkansans for Education Reform Foundation are aligned.
The purpose of the Arkansas Learns alliance is to broaden the base of support among the state’s employers for excellent schools, he said.
Gordy recruited Newton in 2012 to establish the business alliance, Newton said, and the foundation directed grant money from the Walton Family Foundation of Bentonville for the start-up of the alliance.
The Walton Family Foundation is a funder of both organizations.
Newton is the former executive vice president of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“I was honored and humbled by the opportunity to launch and lead Arkansas Learns, so I am especially grateful for the board’s confidence in this expanded role in what I believe to be the greatest public issue of our time,” Newton said in a statement.
Gordy, a banker for 22 years and a former nine-year member of the Arkansas Board of Education, has accepted an invitation to join the foundation’s board of directors, whose current members are Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Jim Walton, chairman and chief executive officer of Arvest Bank Group Inc.; Claiborne Deming, chairman of the board for Murphy Oil Corp., and William Dillard III, vice president of Dillard’s Inc.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 07/22/2013