Dwayne Pinkney named senior vice president for operations and administration
Dwayne Pinkney, senior associate vice chancellor for finance and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been named senior vice president for operations and administration at Virginia Tech.
Pinkney will start his new position on Aug. 1, 2018.
“I am pleased to welcome Dwayne to the Virginia Tech community and to our leadership team,” said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands. “His arrival comes at a critical and exciting point in our university’s history. As we complete our campus master plan and strategic planning process, building upon key initiatives including Destination Areas and InclusiveVT, Dr. Pinkney’s leadership will be essential to managing the financial and operational resources necessary to achieve our Beyond Boundaries vision.
“Dwayne has the financial and administrative experience as well as the collaborative and interpersonal skills to help us move forward successfully,” said Sands.
Reporting to the president and working closely with the executive vice president and provost, the executive leadership team, and the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors, Pinkney will oversee all aspects of the financial and operational enterprises of the university, including financial affairs, human resources, policy and governance, and planning and facilities management.
“People across the higher education landscape are impressed by President Sands’ bold vision to become a leading global university — one that is highly collaborative with multiple partners to address society’s greatest challenges,” said Pinkney. “I am very excited to join and support this effort and to help make the new Partnership for an Incentive Based Budget model and other financial and operations systems integral to our success.”
Pinkney will bring 23 years of financial and administrative management in higher education and state legislative experience to Virginia Tech, spending the last 14 years in progressively higher-level management positions at UNC-Chapel Hill.
In his most recent role as senior associate vice chancellor for finance and administration, Pinkney served as the strategic advisor and principal deputy to the vice chancellor for finance and administration. He also provided oversight of the university’s financial, budget, and accounting operations and provided leadership for the division’s shared administrative and business services functions.
Prior to that position, he served as vice provost for finance and academic planning since 2010 and secretary of the university since 2014. He also served as the assistant vice chancellor for finance and administration and special assistant to the chancellor for state and local relations. In these roles, he was responsible for the Student Stores and Trademarks Licensing operations, was the campus’ primary liaison to the state legislature, and advised the chancellor and senior leadership on all matters related to state government affairs and local/municipal government.
Prior to coming to UNC-Chapel Hill in 2004, Pinkney was an associate vice president for finance at the University of North Carolina General Administration. He also has six years of experience as a fiscal analyst with the North Carolina General Assembly and served a short period of time as the deputy secretary for administration with the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State.
Pinkney received his Ph.D. in political science at UNC-Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh. He received his bachelor’s degree in English and journalism from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Joining the Virginia Tech community with Dwayne will be his wife, Sandra Pinkney, a senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry. Their two sons are students in the University of North Carolina system institutions.
