Accounting
Abacus CPAs LLC promoted John Helms III to partner. He’s worked for Abacus for 12 years and specializes in fraud, tax and accounting services. Helms earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Missouri State University.
Banking and Finance
Maria Stockton, Central Trust Co.’s assistant vice president and relationship manager, was awarded the Certified Trust and Financial Advisor certification from the American Bankers Association. In addition to experience and education qualifications, recipients agree to abide by a code of ethics and pass a CTFA exam covering fiduciary and trust activities, financial planning, tax law and planning, and investment management.
Education
Drury University recognized Associate Director of Safety and Security Jason Goodman with the 2019 Distinguished Staff Service Award. A Drury employee for 17 years, Goodman was selected for his handling of emergency and security situations, continuous process improvements, attention to detail for compliance matters, and putting safety and student needs first.
Health Care
CoxHealth promoted Charity Elmer to executive vice president-general counsel from senior vice president-general counsel and Jake McWay to executive vice president and chief financial officer from senior vice president and CFO. Dr. Tim Jones added executive vice president to his role as president of Cox Medical Group.
Municipal
Fitch Ratings affirmed the obligations and issuer default rating for City Utilities of Springfield as AA. The company also received an AA rating on outstanding revenue bonds and an outlook of stable. The rating reflects City Utilities’ ample rate flexibility, a relatively strong service area, a very low electric system operating cost burden supported by a reasonable diverse power supply portfolio, and manageable capital requirements rated by Fitch.
The Springfield-Greene County Library District named Tysha Shay as branch manager of the Republic Branch Library. She previously worked as reference department manager at the Library Station and succeeds Erin Gray in Republic. With 11 years of experience, Shay directs the branch’s library and business services, and outreach efforts.
Nonprofit
Polk County House of Hope Inc. named Roberta Bledsoe as executive director to oversee the domestic and sexual violence shelter and outreach program. She has experience as accounting supervisor with Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph Inc., senior accountant at Woods Supermarket Inc. and finance manager at West Central Missouri Community Action Agency. Bledsoe also has 13 years of auditing experience with the state of Missouri.