As they grieve the sudden, unexpected death of Jim Wolford, their former CEO, employees of networking services firm Atomic Data said Wolford’s comprehensive plan for the company’s direction and his shared-goals strategy is still providing valuable leadership even after his passing.
“Jim was a force of nature — I never thought we would arrive on a Monday and he wouldn’t be there,” said Scott Evangelist, director of marketing communications for Atomic Data. But like others at the Minneapolis-based Atomic Data, Evangelist said that the business structure led by Wolford was solid enough to survive even his own death.
“There’s still an immense void, which is hard to put into words,” Evangelist said. “But the wheels continue to turn. He put in place a business we are going to follow through on, doubling down on venues and charitable work.”
A leader in both business and charity
According to Atomic Data, Wolford passed away at his home on May 5. No cause of death was reported. While employees say the silence now coming from Wolford’s office is strange, they also said they are not at a great loss of what to do next since Wolford had made sure that the company’s direction was a shared experience. That includes a continued expansion of the company’s business of building and running networks in soccer stadiums, which started in Minnesota and has expanded to include more MLS-level venues, like Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.
“There’s a big void in the office that is next to mine, where I could always hear his intense conversations coming through the wall,” said Yagya Mahadevan, enterprise project manager at Atomic Data. “But he built us a place driven by objectives we all share. It’s our job now to go out and achieve what he had wished.”
While Wolford built the company he founded in 2001 into a leader in the IT services space, he also provided his entrepreneurial leadership to local and global nonprofit projects. According to the memoriam on the Atomic Data site, a 2012 visit to Africa “led to the construction of a permanent free library in Uganda, providing education and opportunity for 3,000 book-starved refugees a month.” The memoriam said that when the literacy nonprofit, Start Reading Now, was struggling to survive, “Jim took control and funded operations indefinitely so kids would continue receiving 10 free books a year.” In Wolford’s memory, the company posted a request for donations to Start Reading Now.
According to Atomic Data, among other efforts the 55-year-old Wolford also spearheaded a IT training program for minorities in tech, providing free education and job search assistance. Other local obituaries provided more details on a life that was seen as one that “transcended business.”
According to some stories shared by Evangelist and Mahadevan, the culture that Wolford helped foster both inside and outside Atomic Data was intensely personal, where hugs were more common than handshakes.
“He was much more than business, he was a very human person,” Mahadevan said. “He made all of us feel like family.”
According to Atomic Data, a remembrance of Jim’s life and legacy will be held on June 10, at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In lieu of flowers, the company has asked those interested to please consider a donation to Start Reading Now.
