Acxiom Corp. President and CEO Scott Howe told Arkansas Business last week that his company will hire between 300-400 new employees as the publicly traded data services firm moves deeper into digital media.
Howe, in an interview for Arkansas Business’ weekly Whispers column, said on the Little Rock-based company’s big initiatives involves pouring about $30 million into research and development, which includes hiring between 300-400 employees, mostly software developers.
About 500 people already work at Acxiom’s River Market District headquarters.
"Our challenge now is to find those folks," Howe said, noting that about 20 had so far been hired.
Stiff competition with Silicon Valley and other metropolitan areas means that many of the new hires should come from central Arkansas, Howe said.
He said the new hires would have a wide range of talents as the company breaks into the realm of digital media.
"Before, we needed folks who really understood data architecture and the concept of a traditional database," he said. "Increasingly, we also need folks who understand how an ad server works, who understand how Facebook works, who understand how search algorithms work."
(Update: Acxiom is already seeking 170 of the 300 jobs, and will recruit from some of central Arkansas’ universities.)
Into Digital Space
Acxiom has been heading deeper into the digital space within its executive ranks, as well. During its search for a new CEO last summer, Interim CEO Jerry Gramaglia signaled the company was seeking an executive with experience in digital advertising and marketing.
Since then, Acxiom has made a string of executive hires hailing from a digital background.
Howe is a former executive for Microsoft Advertising Business Groups. New CFO Warren C. Jenson has been CFO of videgame maker Electronic Arts Inc. and online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. And Nada Stirratt, the company’s first chief revenue officer, has worked for AOL, the digital advertising arm of MTV Networks and social media website MySpace.
Last week, Acxiom reported third-quarter profit down 62 percent to $7.9 million as revenue dropped 2 percent to $280.8 million.
(With reporting by Luke Jones.)
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