Jim Gattis was a pioneer in Financial Technology in Arkansas, building Systematics data center operations from small beginnings into a national network of managed facilities. He grew up in Fort Smith where he graduated for high school in 1955 and headed to the Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas. At Fayetteville Jim he played basketball
Hunter Gammill was one of the pioneers in Financial Technology in Arkansas. He grew up in Pine Bluff and graduated from the University of Arkansas with an electrical engineering degree in 1962, followed by additional courses in marketing. In 1963 he went to work at IBM as a systems engineer and began to work automating
Michael Leonidas Dertouzos (Greek: Μιχαήλ Λεωνίδας Δερτούζος) (November 5, 1936 – August 27, 2001) was a Greek Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) from 1974 to 2001. During Dertouzos’s term, LCS innovated in a variety of areas, including RSA encryption, the spreadsheet, the NuBus,
Jerry Adams is the President/CEO of the Arkansas Research Alliance. A new economic development non-profit modeled on the very successful Georgia Research Alliance. Its primary focus is to leverage university-based job-creating research in Arkansas. Jerry retired from Acxiom Corporation in October, 2007 after 34 years serving a variety of senior leadership roles. Jerry recently stepped
Growing up in Centerton, AR, Donna Amos was actually born in Chapman, Kansas. Her father purchased Centerton Telephone Company and so that is where her family moved their roots to. She went to middle school in Centerton and high school at Bentonville Public Schools and graduated in 1951. Centerton actually consolidated with Bentonville when she
Wally began his 26 year career with IBM in Little Rock, which included various management, marketing and technical positions. He then became a project manager in IBM’s development lab in Boeblingen, Germany, moving from there to Dallas where he led the IBM National Technical Support Center for Database and Application Development. Upon retirement from IBM,
Charles worked for the University computing center from 1961 until 1969 in various positions. He also worked in various management and technical positions at Texas Instruments from 1969 until his retirement in 1997. He has a BA in Mathematics from the UofA and a Master’s in Computer Science. He was elected Senior Member of Technical
With the University of Arkansas’ Computing Services, Craig has held the positions of research programmer/analyst, microcomputer support manager, user services manager, and associate director. He has also held the position of data procurement manager with Business Affairs. He is the co-founder of the User Services division of Computing Services and the founder of the Microcomputer
Bill Bruton is originally from Blytheville, Arkansas, where he graduated from high school and then attended the University of Arkansas from 1959-1963, majoring in English. He went to work in 1963 for First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Little Rock (later known as First Federal of Arkansas) as a management trainee. In 1964 he
Kent Burnett is the Senior VP of Information Technology & e-Commerce for Dillard’s Inc. in Little Rock. He is a native of Arkansas and an engineering graduate of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He has been with Dillard’s for over 30 years and provided leadership in both technology and store operations.
Gary worked with the University of Arkansas’ Computing Department Staff (under Dr. Wray Wilkes) from 1961-1964. He designed and developed first Greek/Rush week scheduling system. From 1965-1993, he worked with IBM in Systems Engineering and Marketing positions. While at IBM, he installed the first remote on-line order entry system in Arkansas. He also attended IBM’s
Marvin began association with information systems during his tour in the U.S. Navy in 1945-1946. He continued this association after his discharge from the Navy with Louisiana & Arkansas Railway until 1953. He was then employed by Murphy Oil in 1953 to begin their then-called “Machine Accounting” department. Marvin remained with Murphy Oil until his
Dr. Bob Crisp – Bob started in 1963 with the University’s Computing Center as a TA, programming an IBM 650. Along with some other TA’s, he taught the first general introductory computing course offered at the University: INEG 1851. After receiving his MS degree, he worked for IBM in Little Rock and in Mobile, AL,
Paul Cronan
Born in San Bernardino, California, Larry Davenport attended school in Arkansas, in the cities of Clinton and Fayetteville. After earning his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees in Mathematics at the University of Arkansas, Davenport began working in February 1965 at IBM, where for the next two and a half decades he would
Alex Dietz
David worked as Associate Professor in Computer Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville from 1982-1985 and also as Department chair and professor from 1985-1998. From 1998-Present, he has worked as a professor in Information Systems at the U of A. At the University, some of the classes he has
Ron’s career began in Little Rock in 1965 with IBM. During his twenty-seven years with the company he held many positions, including Systems Engineer, Staff Instructor, Senior Market Support Representative, and Planning Manager. After retiring from IBM in 1992, he began working for the Acxiom Corporation. His roles with Acxiom included co-Business Unit Leader for
Ron Goforth.
Tom spent thirty-five years with IBM in Systems Engineering, Sales and Sales Management. While with IBM, he worked as Representative for Arkansas State Government during administrations of Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, and David Pryor. He also worked as Manager of Large Account sales in Kansas City, serving manufacturing, distribution, retail, public sector and education accounts.