MSU CFO set to retire

An executive officer is set to retire soon at Missouri State University.

A celebration for the retirement of Chief Financial Officer Steve Foucart was held yesterday, according to a tweet by MSU President Clif Smart. Foucart is slated to exit his role at the university on Aug. 1, according to a blog post from Smart in January.

In the tweet, Smart said he hired Foucart to be CFO on his first day as president.

"What a great decision!" Smart said via Twitter. "Thank you Steve for 12 great years."

The MSU Board of Governors approved Foucart as permanent CFO in 2013 after he held the role in the interim for two years prior, according to past reporting.

MSU hired Foucart as its controller in 2008, Springfield Business Journal previously reported. Prior to joining the university, Foucart served as CFO of Willow Brook Foods from 1985 until the business was purchased in March 2008 by Wichita-based Cargill Meat Solutions, which closed the Springfield operation. MSU bought the former Willow Brook Foods downtown building in 2009, transforming it into the Robert W. Plaster Center for Free Enterprise and Business Development.

Foucart's biography page at MissouriState.edu indicates his career started in 1979 as an accountant and treasury analyst for Union Texas Petroleum Corp.

An MSU official could not be reached immediately for comment by deadline on the CFO succession plan.