FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The board of directors of the University of Arkansas Foundation Inc. has announced that Frank W. Oldham Jr. of Jonesboro, Ark., has been elected board chair effective July 1. Oldham replaces Lewis E. Epley Jr. of Fayetteville, who remains on the board after completing a two-year term as chair. Freddie Black of Lake Village was elected vice chair.

The foundation, with total assets managed exceeding $1 billion, has as its sole mission to advance and support the academic activities of all units of the University of Arkansas System.

Frank Oldham served as chairman and chief executive officer of American State Bank in Jonesboro until it merged with BancorpSouth Bank on Dec. 1, 2005. He now serves as regional president for Northeast Arkansas for BancorpSouth bank, a New York stock exchange listed company (BXS).

Prior to joining American State Bank Corp., Oldham was affiliated with Boatmen’s Bank of Northeast Arkansas where he served as chairman, president and chief executive officer. He began his banking career with Citizens Bank of Jonesboro in 1974, and from 1983 to 1991 he served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Security Bank in Paragould, Ark. He joined Worthen Banking Corp. in 1991 as president and chief operating officer of Worthen National Bank of Conway. Oldham was a tenured professor of management at Arkansas State University until 1983.

Oldham served a 10-year term on the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees. He served as chairman of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees for two years. Oldham is past chairman of the Mid South School of Banking at the University of Memphis; past chairman of the Bank Administration Institute in Chicago, and past chairman of the Arkansas Association of Bank Holding Companies.

Oldham holds a doctoral degree in business administration from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, an Master of Arts in marketing from Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, Mo., a Bachelor of  Science in business from Arkansas State University and an Associate in Arts degree in general business from Williams Baptist College, Walnut Ridge, Ark. He is a 1987 graduate of the Advanced Management Program, Graduate School of Business, Harvard University, where he was elected class chairman.

Oldham is the author of Job Descriptions in Banking, in its second edition, and has written numerous professional journal articles.

Civic activities include board memberships with Arkansas Cancer Research Center, UAMS; University of Arkansas Foundation Inc. (chairman elect); Steering Committee, University of Arkansas Campaign for the Twenty-First Century; St. Bernard’s Development Foundation; the Jonesboro Industrial Development Corp. (past president); the Greater Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce; Jonesboro Unlimited; and the Jonesboro Rotary Club.

He and his wife, Donna, are the parents of two children, Whitney and Chad.