April 10, 2023
Double Tar Heel, Matt Rivenbark ‘00, ‘02 (M.A.), recently stepped into a new position at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. After working as the senior director of finance for the School for seven years, Rivenbark is now the executive director of finance and facilities services.
His journey at Carolina began when he earned a bachelor’s degree in 2000 from what was then the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. As an undergrad, he produced videos for the masters in accounting program at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, and because he had an aptitude for math and knew that the program actively sought applicants with backgrounds other than accounting, he applied, enrolled, and graduated with a master’s degree in accounting in 2002.
“Matt has been an active participant in the Eshelman leadership team since joining in 2011. Over the past 3 years, he has assisted in navigating the resource needs of our BEYOND plan,” said Scott Savage ‘98, ‘02, Pharm.D., executive vice dean and chief operating officer at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and chief financial officer for the Eshelman Institute for Innovation.
Rivenbark is confident his previous accounting experience with the School and building the finance team has prepared him to take on the additional focus of facilities. Having years of institutional knowledge, he is able to learn new processes quickly and knows the right person to contact in order to get the job done.
“That was part of the excitement—being able to step in and steward the office and offer my critical thinking skills to make the School a little more efficient,” said Rivenbark who served as interim for the position from July 2022 until officially being appointed in March.
“This dual responsibility will allow our team to continue developing internal talent to deliver on the School’s mission and vision. Matt is also active across campus and has developed a strong team within finance and already within our new facility team members,” said Savage.
Rivenbark’s first focus was the hiring of a new facilities director. He plans to prioritize space strategy and allocation across the School’s 900+ classroom, research and lab spaces. Having been at the School for over 10 years, Rivenbark says he still has more to accomplish, “I hope to expand my knowledge and continue to learn and grow at Carolina.”
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