In Scott Howe, Acxiom Corp. of Little Rock has found a chief executive immersed in digital advertising and marketing — exactly what the data services firm said it was looking for.
Acxiom Corp. announced the hire Wednesday, along with first-quarter results that bested many analysts’ predictions. By many accounts, the 43-year-old is a nationally known figure among advertisers and marketers.
"As the lines between traditional and digital marketing disappear, Scott insists on a singular focus on helping Acxiom’s clients understand the complexities of this new marketing era," Acxiom said in Howe’s official company biography.
More about Scott Howe:
- A native of Milwaukee, Wis.
- A magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, with a degree in economics.
- Earned an MBA from Harvard University.
- Earlier in his career, he was with The Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm. He also and worked as a financial analyst for Kidder Peabody & Company Inc.
- Served various executive positions at aQuantive, a publicly traded digital marketing and advertising firm founded in 1997. In 2005, Advertising Age ranked aQuantive No. 14 in revenue among ad agencies worldwide. aQuantive was the parent company of Avenue A/Razorfish, Atlas Solutions and DRIVE Performance Solutions.
- Joined Microsoft Corp. in 2007 when the software giant acquired aQuantive for $6 billion. At the time, aQuantive had a market capitalization of $2.8 billion.
- At Microsoft, Howe oversaw many of the company’s products for advertisers, including AdCenter, Atlas Solutions, and an integrated ad network unit called Microsoft Media Network.
- From 2007-2010, was a member of the board of directors of publicly traded Geeknet Inc., which publishes websites including the influential tech blog Slashdot.
- In late 2010, joined the board of directors of Turn Inc., a private company doing business in the Demand Side Platforms and Data Management Platforms categories of digital advertising. (A company question-and-answer with Howe is available here.)
- Left Microsoft in May.
- His LinkedIn profile lists him as a founder of King of the Web, at site that launched in beta in March and is billed as a "portfolio of online game shows with heavy emphasis on user generated content and social media connectivity."
According to PaidContent.org, Howe is "known as organizer and deal-maker, having been been credited with unifying Microsoft’s ad networks and managing the sale of the company’s Razorfish interactive ad agency to Publicis nearly two years ago."