The University of Mississippi will have a vice-chancellor search on their hands the beginning of 2021.

Larry Sparks, vice chancellor for administration and finance, will retire from the University at the end of 2020. Chancellor Glenn Boyce announced Sparks’ impending retirement to the campus community on Monday.

“Please join me in wishing Larry all the best in his well-earned retirement, and thank him for everything he has done to advance our university over the last 23 years,” Boyce said.

The Oxford native and Ole Miss alumnus joined the University in 1997, and he has served in his current role as the University’s chief financial officer since 2006.

Sparks served as the University’s interim chancellor most of 2019 after former chancellor Jeffery Vitter stepped down in January of last year. Sparks served in the role until last fall when Boyce was hired as the new chancellor in October.

During his time at Ole Miss, Sparks also served as president of the University of Mississippi Educational Building Corporation and as the University representative on the Joint Committee on Investments, which oversees endowments for the University, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the UM Foundation. Sparks is also a member of the IHL-UMMC Partnership and Affiliation Review Committee and serves on the Executive Council of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

Boyce also announced a committee has been formed to begin a national search for Sparks’ replacement. Committee members include: Dr. Mark Wilder, Dean of the Patterson School of Accounting; Dr. Noel Wilkin, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Dr. Charlotte Pegues, Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs; Dr. Meagen Rosenthal, Chair of the Faculty Senate and Mr. Jason Shirkey, Chair of the Staff Council.