By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Ten people had applied for the job of executive director of Arkansas’ new state-run lottery by Wednesday, and Tom Courtway, interim president of the troubled University of Central Arkansas, said he plans to add his resume to the list.

“I will confirm for you on the record that, by Friday at the latest, and maybe (Thursday), I intend to submit a formal letter of application and resume to the Lottery Commission for the position of executive director,” Courtway said in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau.

Speaking Wednesday at a meeting of the Arkansas Lottery Commission, Ray Thornton, the commission’s chairman, said the director’s position has been advertised over the past few days in newspapers, lottery industry Web sites and the state’s government jobs Web site.

“It first hit the press on Sunday; this is Wednesday. If that rate continues, we’ll be flooded with applications,” Thornton told reporters during a break in the meeting.

The Lottery Commission has said it will begin reviewing applications after June 1. It has not set an end date for submission of applications.

Also Wednesday, commissioners toured a building in downtown Little Rock that the panel is considering renting for temporary or permanent office space. The building is owned by the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.

Courtway, a lawyer and former state legislator from Conway, was UCA’s chief counsel and took over as interim president when former UCA President Lu Hardin resigned in September amid a furor over a $300,000 secret bonus he received.

Since then, the university has endured a stream of disclosures about questionable financial dealings under Hardin.

Courtway also served as interim state education director during a court-ordered overhaul of Arkansas’ public school funding system.

Those who had submitted applications for the executive director’s position by Wednesday afternoon were:

• L. Ashton Adcock, chairman and chief operating officer of Merchants and Farmers Bank in Dumas. Adcock has a law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and formerly practiced law in Little Rock, with emphasis on employment discrimination, contract and personal injury cases.
• Robert Airo, a paramedic with Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services in Little Rock. Airo is enrolled in the Masters of Business Administration program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
• Marlin R. Evans, president and CEO of Bear Financial Services Group in Bryant. Evans has completed 15 hours toward an MBA degree at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia.
• Rachae Frye, a single family housing specialist for the Arkansas Development Finance Authority in Little Rock and a former transportation service representative for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Frye has a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
• Willena Hendley, former director of regulatory compliance for AT&T in Dallas. Hendley has a bachelor’s degree in speech communications from the University of Arkansas.
• Jim Lilly, a managing consultant with Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions in Little Rock and former vice president of supply chain operations for UNISYS Corp. Lilly has an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz.
• Benjamin C. McMinn, a Little Rock lawyer who includes public utilities among his clients. McMinn has a law degree from the University of Arkansas.
• Jason Smith, an information technology technician for R Trux in Ward. Smith has a law degree from Pepperdine University.
• Wanda Young Wilson, executive vice president and general counsel of the Tennessee Education Lottery and former senior vice president and general counsel of the Georgia Lottery. Wilson has a law degree from the University of Minnesota.
• Jeffery N. Young, president and managing director of Palm Beach Land Title Corp. in Palm Beach, Fla. and former director of marketing and research for Williamson & Co. in New York. Young has a master’s degree in political science from the University of Kansas in Lawrence and has completed the Executive Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania.