Data software executive named as Arkansas’ new CTO
![Arkansas captiol](https://statescoop.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/10/arkansas-state-capitol-building-photo-getty-1.jpg?w=977)
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday named Jonathan Askins, a longtime director with the data connectivity software firm Acxiom, as the state’s new chief technology officer and head of its Division of Technology Services.
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Jonathan Askins (Arkansas Governor’s Office)
Askins, who has spent the bulk of his career in the private sector, fills a gap created by the resignation last month of Yessica Jones, who stepped down as CTO after five years with the state government. In a press release, Hutchinson pointed to Askins’ industry experience in choosing him to take over the state’s IT management.
“In his career, he has been a team builder, a business developer, a problem solver, and a crisis manager,” the governor said. “He is everything you look for in a leader, and DIS has great days ahead.”
Askins has served as an adviser to Hutchinson’s administration as vice chair of a data transparency commission since 2018. He previously worked for the state in the late 1990s as a tourism development specialist for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
The bulk of Askins’ career, though, has been spent in the software and data industry. He spent nearly a decade as chief operations officer and owner of Black Oak Analytics, a Little Rock firm, in between stints with Acxiom, which has since changed its name to LiveRamp.
“My wife, Leigh Anna, and I have been blessed by the State of Arkansas though a number of programs that have helped our children and I was thrilled for this opportunity to repay a state that has given us so much,” Askins said in Hutchinson’s press release.