After operating for 22 months without a sales director, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has promoted a regional sales manager, Mark Hearn, to the post.
Lottery Director Eric Hagler announced Hearn's appointment Tuesday.
"Mark has been part of the lottery family since its inception and has proven that he possesses the experience, drive, and talents required to lead our sales efforts, especially through these unprecedented and very challenging times," Hagler said in a news release.
The sales director is a key management position that oversees and directs the sales efforts of the lottery. The sales director supervises two regional managers and 20 marketing sales representatives, Hagler said in a written statement responding to this newspaper's questions. The lottery has 65 employees.
"I believe the filling [of] the position with a proven, consistent leader is a step in the right direction," said Hagler, a former securities lawyer who started work Aug. 6 as director. "This provides a central point of contact and leadership for the entire sales team.
"Mark's ability to take initiative and serve in a leadership role was immediately obvious to me. My discussions with [marketing sales representatives] merely served to confirm my own observations. We believe the team just got stronger," he said.
Hearn, who started working for the lottery in 2009, is receiving a pay raise from $76,464 to $86,464 a year with his promotion, said Scott Hardin, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance and Administration.
The position wasn't advertised and isn't required to be advertised under state law, Hardin said.
Hearn said in the release, "In my new role, I intend to work collaboratively with our valued retail partners to capitalize on growth opportunities and provide our sales team with the support and direction they need to achieve our goals."
The lottery has more than 1,900 retailers across Arkansas that sell lottery tickets.
Hearn has more than 26 years of experience in sales, starting his career as an assistant store manager and sales representative for Sherwin-Williams before serving as a retail sales representative for Gillette Commercial Operations North America and area account manager for Procter & Gamble.
Hearn, a native of Arkadelphia, received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Henderson State University, according to the lottery.
The sales director post has been vacant since Mitch Chandler left Dec. 28, 2018, to work as director of executive communications at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
During the first three months of fiscal 2021, which start July 1, scratch-off ticket revenue has increased to $126.7 million, compared with $99.9 million in the same period in fiscal 2020, while draw-game sales increased to $20 million, compared with $18.1 million in the same period a year ago.
In the first three months of fiscal 2021, the lottery has raised $24.1 million for college scholarships, up from $16 million in the same period in fiscal 2020.
The lottery has operated as a division of the finance department in the executive branch since late February 2015. That change resulted from the Legislature and Gov. Asa Hutchinson enacting a law that axed the independent nine-member Lottery Commission that governed the lottery during its first six years of operations.