WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark (search) has resigned from the board of two companies -- Acxiom Corp. and Entrust Inc.
In mid-2001, the retired Army general had joined the Stephens Group, the parent company of a privately held family financial concern in Little Rock, Ark., as a managing director for merchant banking. That December, Acxiom Inc., a Little Rock data analysis company, signed a $300,000 contract with Stephens to obtain Clark's help in lobbying the government for homeland security business.
Clark joined Acxiom's board at the same time, and after leaving Stephens earlier this year, he signed another, $150,000 consulting agreement with the company. That contract was terminated when he announced for president last month, according to Acxiom, but he had remained a paid board member.
A privacy group has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (search) against Acxiom and JetBlue Airways (search) Corp., which has acknowledged that, in violation of its own privacy policy, it had given information from about 5 million passenger records to a Defense Department contractor.
Clark serves on at least three other boards, and Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell said he is talking to managers from those companies as well.
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