Acxiom top tier sees pay decline

Proxy’s figures cover fiscal ’10

— Most executives at Little Rock-based Acxiom Corp. received less compensation for fiscal 2010 than a year earlier, according to an annual regulatory document filed Tuesday.

John Meyer, the interactive marketing services company’s chief executive, was an exception, receiving total compensation of $4,843,139, up from $3,963,361 last year. His salary was $647,500, down from $700,000.

John Adams, chief operating officer, received total compensation of $1,724,568, down from $2,730,011. His salary was $462,500, up from $441,346.

Because of the recession, the proxy said, Meyer and Adams voluntarily reduced the salary component “as part of the Company’s overall cost saving measures.”

Acxiom said in May that revenue was $1.1 billion for the fiscal year, which ended March 31, down from $1.28 billion in fiscal 2009. Profit was $44.2 million, up from $37.5 million in 2009.

The salaries of other executives also were cut.

Chris Wolf, chief financial officer, received compensation of $1,291,699 falling from $1,778,120. His salary was $377,500, down from $400,000.

Jerry Jones, chief legalofficer, got $755,794, compared with $1,164,035 a year earlier. Shawn Donovan, senior vice president for global sales, received compensation of $917,055, compared with $1,411,318 in fiscal 2009.

Chris Crawford, executive director at a Houston-based compensation consultant firm, Longnecker & Associates, said Tuesday that it wasn’t unusual last year for executives in several industries - retail, energy, manufacturing and financial services, for example - to take a voluntary cuts or freezes on the salary side.

However, he said, most of those companies are “reversing course,” returning to increasing pay.

The company’s annual proxy filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also said that Acxiom’s shareholder meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. Aug. 2 in downtown Little Rock at the Acxiom River Market Building, 601 E.Third St.

Shareholders will vote on whether to approve a cash incentive plan for employees who meet performance targets. The maximum payable in a calendar year to a single employee is $3 million. For Meyer, the target on the plan for fiscal 2011 is $630,000.

They also will decide whether to approve the reelection of three directors: Jerry D. Gramaglia, Clark M. Kokich and Kevin M. Twomey. If re-elected, their terms would expire in 2013.

Also to be decided is the ratification of KPMG LLP as the company’s independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2011.

The company previously had announced that directors Mary Good and Steve Patterson won’t seek re-election. Their terms are to expire on the date of the shareholder meeting. Acxiom also had said that director Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, whose term wasn’t to expire until next year, told the company that he would resign on the same date.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette calculates executive compensation with The Associated Press formula of adding any salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation, and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The results do not always match totals found in the SEC filings, as is the case with Acxiom this year.

While Acxiom said in a statement that the numbers derived from the AP method are technically correct, it maintained that Meyer’s actual 2010 compensation decreased by 27 percent compared with fiscal 2009. The difference between the two interpretations relates to how stock and option awards are reported.

Business, Pages 23 on 06/23/2010

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