Theodore Bunting, Jr. currently serves as VP, CFO-Nuclear Operations and VP, CFO System Energy Resources, Inc. for Entergy Corporation. Prior to his current position, he was VP, CFO-Operations and VP, CFO, Entergy Arkansas, Inc., Entergy Gulf States, Inc., Entergy Louisiana, Inc., Entergy Mississippi, Inc. and Entergy New Orleans, Inc. In his role as VP, CFO-Nuclear Operations, Bunting is responsible for accounting and financial activities of Entergy’s regulated and non-regulated nuclear function.
Bunting began his professional career in public accounting with Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1981. In 1983, his utility career started with Entergy’s operating subsidiary in Arkansas, Entergy Arkansas, Inc. Bunting has more than 20 years of utility industry experience. His numerous management and staff positions at Entergy have allowed him to be exposed to all areas of utility accounting, as well as rate making, finance, tax and systems development. During his career at Entergy, Bunting has also been involved in the development and growth of Entergy’s unregulated businesses. During that period, he had a wide range of responsibilities, including customer service, operations support, risk management, budgeting and forecasting, and accounting. With Entergy facing $1.1 billion in restoration costs for hurricane damage caused by Katrina and Rita, most of Bunting's attention lately has been focused on the financial issues of the restoration.
He became a Certified Public Accountant in 1983. Prior to rejoining Entergy in April 1999, Bunting was a co-founder and partner in a utility consulting business, focusing on product development. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, American Association of Blacks in Energy and the National Association of Black Accountants.
A native of Conway, Bunting transferred to Hendrix from the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated from Hendrix in 1981 with a degree in Economics and Business with an Emphasis in Accounting.
"To me, Hendrix was a much greater challenge than the U.S. Naval Academy," said Bunting. "More than anything, Hendrix conditioned me to think. I took so many different classes in so many different areas - areas out of my comfort zone - that challenged me to learn and understand and to perform in some disciplines that I wasn't comfortable with. That forces you to develop skills you might not ordinarily learn. When I look back over my career over the past 20-plus years, the time I spent at Hendrix getting a liberal arts education probably had the biggest impact on me."
Bunting said the business and economics faculty were part of what made Hendrix so special to him. He credited several professors in the economics and business department, Eloise Raymond, Ralph Scott, Billy Humphrey and Stephen Kerr, for their guidance on personal as well as academic issues. "I believe it was an environment that if you wanted to learn, if you wanted to be successful, if you wanted to achieve, Hendrix and the professors were accommodating to that," he said.
Bunting, who lives in Slidell, La., is chairman of the Robert J. Taylor Scholarship Foundation, a college scholarship program for incoming freshmen. He and his wife, Beverly, have two sons, Ryan and Trey. The family is active in the Greater North Shore Full Gospel Church where Bunting is a Sunday school teacher and is vice president of a men's organization. He has served on the Board of Trustees for the College since 2006.