On July 1, 2026, Gary McArthur officially stepped into the role of Enterprise Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at the University of Utah, returning to an institution that served as a launch pad for his life.
McArthur – who succeeded former CFO Tony Wagner – graduated from the university’s David Eccles School of Business before beginning a career that has spanned over three decades. Many of those years were spent at the helm of Fortune 500 companies.
Now he’s bringing that experience back home.
Answering the Call
McArthur’s career started in the Salt Lake Valley at Deloitte & Touche LLP (previously Deloitte, Haskins and Sells), but it soon led him out east.
“From Deloitte, I went with a client to the East Coast and started what was then the very beginning of this business that my wife said would never go anywhere – it was called cellular and we were working to bring cellular communications to the world for the first time,” he said.
McArthur continued his education at Harvard Business School, before resuming his career with Lehman Brothers. Client work followed, as did positions at Nextel Communications and the Harris Corporation (now L3 Harris). He spent 17 years working at Harris, an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets, where he eventually served as the senior vice president and chief financial officer. He later served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at CH2M Hill and as a board member and interim chief executive officer at Vista Outdoor.
Despite the distance, McArthur maintained his deep ties to the U.
When President Taylor Randall was serving as the dean of the David Eccles School of Business, McArthur sat on the advisory board for several years. “This spring when President Randall called and asked if I would consider being the CFO for the University of Utah, I said yes.”
An Exciting Time for the University
The opportunity to join the institution in the chief financial officer position appealed to McArthur for two primary reasons: the U’s storied past of excellence and its promising horizon ahead.
“The University of Utah has done some amazing things,” he said, pointing to the significant growth in research funding, revenue and endowment support. “And there are big things coming with the new health systems campus at the Point of the Mountain, preparing for the Olympics in 2034 and enhancing the student experience as part of President Randall’s Impact 2030.”
McArthur also recognizes that the landscape of higher education is evolving and is entering a period of significant change. Decreased funding from state and federal entities, shifting demographics and increased competition for student enrollment and retention are all real challenges facing the university.
Rather than seeing those as obstacles, he views them as a chance to think differently. One of the ways he plans to do that is by helping the university act and operate as a single enterprise.
Historically, the university’s academic campus, health systems, athletics, ARUP and other groups have acted independently of one another when it comes to financial operations. McArthur is leading the effort to create a more centralized, streamlined system and is assisting with a university enterprise-wide strategic plan for the next five years.
Central to this process is a spirit of collaboration and sharing ideas from individuals across the University Enterprise.
“We’re really a support function,” he said. “Yes, we have the responsibility of overseeing all university finances and the preparation of all university financial reports. More importantly is how we use that information to advise and assist all areas of the university enterprise and help each be successful. We’re all about continuous improvement. Most of what we’re trying to do as an organization is to build upon past successes toward a better place in the future and that really goes across the board.”
“What has been a key to my success in the past is making those around me successful and my team successful and that’s really what the focus is of this organization,” he said.
Leadership Lessons Built on a Strong Foundation
As the Enterprise CFO, McArthur isn’t just the person in charge of the numbers; he’s also in charge of a large group of employees who help the university operate behind the scenes every day. His role as a leader is one he doesn’t take lightly.
McArthur credits his father for instilling the importance of leadership early on in his life. “My dad really ingrained in me this idea of not being a follower, of how important it is to be a leader and to get out there and make a difference,” he said.
The University of Utah also provided “a tremendous foundation” for McArthur.
In addition to graduating from the University of Utah which served as the launching pad for a successful career, he also met his wife while at the U. “As a young student, I had an economics professor who told me that the two most important decisions you will ever make in your life are what you choose to do for your career and who you choose to marry. If you can get those two right, and pursue each with passion throughout your life, you’re going to be far down the paths of success and happiness,” he said.
“I like to think I got this mostly right.”
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