Board of Regents, Audit Committee, Committee Chairs to meet June 6

The Tennessee Board of Regents will convene for a special called meeting Tuesday, June 6, to review and consider recommendations for two senior-level staff appointments: chief audit executive and vice chancellor of business and finance.

The board’s committee chairs and its Audit Committee will also meet on the same day. The full schedule for the June 6 meetings:

• The Audit Committee will meet from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The committee’s agenda includes consideration of Chancellor Flora W. Tydings’ recommendation of Michael Batson for appointment as the board’s chief audit executive, which, if approved by the committee, would then go to the full board’s special called meeting at 1 p.m.

Also on the committee’s agenda are review of audit reports, a report on the transition of internal audit functions for the six former TBR universities under the FOCUS (Focus on College and University Success) Act, a review of revisions to fiscal year 2017 internal audit plans, and a review of the system-wide internal audit budget for fiscal year 2018. At the conclusion of its public agenda, the committee will meet in a non-public executive session to review audit and investigation activities that are confidential under state law until final reports are issued. The committee’s full agenda and materials are available on the TBR website at https://www.tbr.edu/board/june-quarterly-meeting.

• The Board of Regents will meet in a special called telephone conference meeting from 1 to 1:30 p.m. to consider the chancellor’s recommendation of Danny Gibbs for appointment as the next vice chancellor of business and finance and, if approved by the Audit Committee, the chancellor’s recommendation of Batson as chief audit executive.

• The board’s committee chairs will meet from 1:30 to 3 p.m. The committee chairs will review the draft agenda of the board’s quarterly meeting June 22-23 and hear reports and updates on various business and finance, personnel and compensation, and academic affairs issues that will be acted on or presented at the June 22-23 meetings.

The meetings will be held at the TBR system office at 1 Bridgestone Park, just west of the Lebanon Pike-Briley Parkway interchange in Nashville. Except for the executive session portion of the Audit Committee, all meetings are open to the public as observers. To facilitate attendance – or to request call-in information for the board’s conference call – members of the public and media should notify TBR communications director Rick Locker, at (615) 366-4417 or rick.locker@tbr.edu by 4 p.m., Monday, June 5.

If their appointments are approved by the board, Gibbs will succeed Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Dale Sims and Batson will succeed Chief Audit Executive Tammy Gourley Birchett. Birchett is retiring June 9 after 36 years of service to the state, including more than 12 years at TBR leading the Office of System-Wide Internal Audit. Sims is retiring June 30 after 37½ years of state service, including six years (three terms) as state treasurer and the last 8½ years as TBR vice chancellor for finance and business operations of the system.

Batson has been TBR director of system-wide internal audit since Oct. 1, 2016, after 22 years as director of internal audit, fiscal analyst and internal auditor at Tennessee State University. He joined state government in 1986 as a legislative auditor in the state comptroller’s office and left in 1993 for a year in the private sector before returning to state service at TSU in 1994. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Auburn University and is a certified public accountant.

Gibbs is executive vice president for business and finance at Roane State Community College, where he has headed business and finance operations since 2006.  He also joined state government as a legislative auditor in the comptroller’s office 1983. He moved to Volunteer State Community College in 1984, where he was assistant vice president for business and finance for 22 years before moving to Roane State. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Tennessee Tech University and is a certified public accountant.