Acxiom, Three Leaders Make $4.25 Million Gift to College of Engineering

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Rodger Kline, Charles Morgan and Jim Womble of Acxiom Corp.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Three top Acxiom Corporation executives have endowed three faculty positions in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas. The three alumni of the class of 1966 — Charles Morgan, company leader; Rodger Kline, chief finance and administration leader; and Jim Womble, global development leader — each made personal gifts which, when combined with an Acxiom corporate gift, total $4.25 million. These gifts have been matched dollar for dollar by the university’s Matching Gift Program, creating three endowments that total $8.5 million.

“We are grateful to Charles Morgan, Rodger Kline, Jim Womble and Acxiom for their generosity to the University of Arkansas College of Engineering,” said John A. White, chancellor. “Acxiom has been a steadfast supporter of our engineering program. Its support, along with that of three key members of its leadership team — all three of whom are alumni of our engineering college — has made all the difference in the college’s ability to recruit and retain outstanding students, faculty and staff. Charles and Rodger served on the Steering Committee for the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. Rodger also chaired the Advisory Board for the College of Engineering. Their gift is a tangible measure of the pride Charles, Rodger and Jim have in their alma mater and their commitment to making the college nationally competitive. I appreciate their support more than words can convey.”

Morgan has contributed $1.5 million through an estate gift and Acxiom has committed $750,000 to fund the Charles D. Morgan/Acxiom Graduate Research Chair in Database in the computer science and computer engineering department. With matching gifts from the university’s Matching Gift Program, an immediate endowment of $3 million will be established to enhance and endow the existing Acxiom Term Chair in Database that was created in 2000. The endowment will provide permanent support for long-term investments in critical database technologies. 

“Witnessing the growth and progress of the University of Arkansas and its engineering program has been a great experience,” Morgan said. “It has been an honor to be associated with the institution for more than 40 years, and I join everyone at Acxiom in expressing confidence that the next four decades will see even greater things from the university.”

Kline has given $1.5 million through an estate gift to establish the Rodger S. Kline Chair in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. His gift will be matched immediately by the university’s Matching Gift Program to create a $1.5 million endowment. The purpose of the chair is to attract or retain highly qualified faculty with expertise in cutting-edge fields such as networking, database, DNA computing, and distributed systems and parallel I/O. When fully funded, the endowment of the chair will be $3 million.

“The University of Arkansas and the College of Engineering have earned their great reputation, and we are proud to make this contribution to the future,” Kline said, noting the college has been one of the chief sources of Acxiom engineers and technologists for many years.

Womble has contributed $500,000 through an estate gift to establish the James T. Womble Professorship in Computational Mechanics and Nanotechnology Modeling, which will be in the civil engineering department. With matching gifts from the university’s Matching Gift Program, an immediate endowment of $500,000 will be established. The purpose of the professorship is to attract and recruit highly qualified individuals and provide the holder with the resources to continue and further contributions to teaching, research and public service. When fully funded, the endowment of the professorship will be $1 million.

“It is exciting to be able to help the university that has meant so much to me personally, but it is even more gratifying to join old college classmates like Charles and Rodger — plus the total Acxiom Corporation — in investing in this growing, vibrant institution,” Womble said.

Morgan, Kline and Womble have each been with Acxiom for more than 30 years, building the company into a global, $1 billion corporation. Based in Little Rock, Acxiom provides customer and information management solutions to many of the largest, most respected companies in the world. The company has been named five times to the list of Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work and now employs more than 6,000 people.

In 1966, Morgan graduated with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering, Kline received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering, and Womble graduated with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas.

“Charles, Rodger and Jim have contributed to the college and the university in numerous ways,” said Ashok Saxena, dean of the College of Engineering. “We are thrilled that their names will be permanently associated with excellence in the various fields of computing in which they have each excelled. The resources will go a long way in achieving the goals of the College of Engineering, and we are grateful to all three alumni for their tremendous generosity.”

Morgan joined the company in 1972, and has served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors since 1975. In 2002, Morgan formed the Mailing Industry CEO Council with 13 other senior executives from leading U.S. companies. The council unifies the mailing industry and promotes the critical role that mail plays in business and commerce. Morgan also joined the Enterprise Software CEO Roundtable in 2002. This group of approximately 30 chief executives and other high-ranking officials of the world’s largest software companies shares ideas and reviews industry trends. He was the 2001 chairman of the Direct Marketing Association and served eight years as chairman of the board of trustees of Hendrix College.

Kline joined Acxiom in 1973 and was named executive vice president and director in 1975.  He was appointed treasurer in 1989 and served as chief information officer from 1988 to 1991.  In 1991, Kline was named chief operating officer. Before beginning his career with the company, Kline spent seven years at IBM Corporation and two years as an officer in the U.S. Army. For the past 11 years, he has served as chairman of the College of Engineering Advisory Council at the University of Arkansas.

As Acxiom’s global development leader, Womble oversees global strategy development, including partnership and merger and acquisition activity outside the United States. For the previous 13 years, he served as client services leader, supervising relationships with Acxiom clients in major industries, including financial services, health and government. In that role, he inspired and instilled a company-wide attitude of focusing more on external client needs than on internal issues, which is a major factor in Acxiom’s success. Since joining the company in 1974, he has worked in several other capacities, including application programming design and implementation, sales and client services. He worked as a systems engineer and marketing representative at IBM before coming to Acxiom. 

This gift counts toward the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, which recorded $1.046 billion in gifts and pledges against the $1 billion goal as of June 30, 2005.