Acxiom Appoints John Watkins as COO to Drive New Era of Operational Excellence

September 20, 2023 at 09:00 AM EDT

Acxiom, the global leader in customer intelligence, welcomes a new Chief Operating Officer, John Watkins. This strategic addition to Acxiom's executive leadership team underscores its commitment to elevating its global operational capabilities for more robust scaling, innovative breakthroughs, and transformative growth. Watkins will report to CEO Chad Engelgau.

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John Watkins (Photo: Business Wire)

Watkins will focus on operationalizing alignment and adaptability through the following initiatives:

Collaborating with Acxiom's executive leaders to create and implement the company's operational vision, strategy, and goals while ensuring these objectives remain aligned with the organizational mission.

Launching a new business unit focused on standardizing, automating, and globalizing operations throughout the enterprise.

Spearheading key projects and integrating methodologies to pinpoint operational opportunities, overcome challenges, and enhance profitability.

Overseeing Acxiom's day-to-day operations to ensure efficient and effective performance and core objectives are consistently achieved.

"Welcoming John signals a bold reimagining of how Acxiom operates," says Engelgau. "His vision, team spirit, and unmatched operational leadership are precisely what Acxiom needs to take us to the next level. With John on board, we're not just looking to the horizon, but aiming to redefine it."

A veteran in technology and data, Watkins’ career spans over twenty years of experience leading complex operations strategies and guiding multifaceted teams. Prior to joining Acxiom, he spent 15 years at Merkle serving in pivotal executive roles, including COO and Global Chief Transformation Officer.

Reflecting on his new role, Watkins says, “I'm thrilled to be part of Acxiom, a trailblazer in data-driven marketing that sets the standard for client impact. I'm eager to work side-by-side with this amazing team, leveraging our combined strengths and ensuring we not just meet but surpass the expectations of our clients, partners, and associates."

About Acxiom

Acxiom partners with the world's leading brands to create customer intelligence, enabling data-driven marketing experiences that generate value for people and for brands. The experts in identity, the ethical use of data, cloud-first customer data management, and analytics solutions, Acxiom makes the complex marketing ecosystem work, applying customer intelligence wherever brands and customers meet. By helping brands genuinely understand people, Acxiom enables experiences so relevant and respectful, people are willing to explore new brands and stay loyal to those they love. For more than 50 years, Acxiom has improved clients' customer acquisition, growth, and retention. With locations in the US, UK, China, Poland, and Germany, Acxiom is a registered trademark of Acxiom LLC and is part of The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (IPG). For more information, visit Acxiom.com.