Since graduating from The University of Mississippi in 1965 with a bachelor of science in business, Sally M. Barksdale has concentrated on community work. She and her husband, Jim, former CEO of Netscape and one of Silicon Valley's leading venture capitalists, recently donated $100 million to create the Barksdale Reading Institute. Other gifts include $5.4 million to the University of Mississippi to create the McDonnell-Barksdale Honors College and several donations to the Medical Center in Jackson for full medical scholarships for African-American students.

Currently, Sally Barksdale is a board member of The University of Mississippi Foundation. While living in Memphis, Tennessee, she served on the Playhouse on the Square board and Memphis in May council, and was president of the Episcopal Women in the Diocese of Tennessee. She also was active at Holy Communion Episcopal Church and St. Mary's School for Girls. In Seattle, Washington, she provided leadership on the board of Lakeside Parents Club.

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Jim Barksdale is a partner of The Barksdale Group, and brings to this position over 35 years of operational experience. Prior to founding the Barksdale Group, Jim served as President & CEO of Netscape Communications Corporation from January 1995 until the company merged with America Online in March of 1999. Over the five years, Netscape's revenue grew by over 14,000% to nearly $600 million. Jim joined when there were less than 100 employees and managed headcount growth until it reached nearly 3,000. He was Director of Netscape from October 1994, and upon completion of the merger with America Online, Jim joined AOL's Board of Directors.

Prior to Netscape, Jim worked at AT&T Wireless Services (formerly McCaw Cellular Communications) as their Chief Executive Officer. From April 1983 to January 1992, Jim served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Federal Express Corporation and prior to that, he served as their Chief Information Officer for four years. During his tenure as COO of Federal Express, Jim experienced approximately 800% revenue growth to $8 billion. Jim Barksdale also held various management positions, including Chief Information Officer with Cook Industries and started his career at IBM.

In January 2000, Jim gifted $100 million to create a statewide reading institute, The Barksdale Reading Institute, which represents a joint venture with The University of Mississippi School of Education, the Mississippi Department of Education, and the state's seven other public university schools of education.

In 1997, Netscape received the "Entrepreneurial Company of the Year" award from both Stanford and Harvard business schools. Computer Reseller News named Barksdale #1 "Executive of the Year," PC Magazine named him "Person of the Year," and at the 1997 ETRE Conference in Budapest he received the "Executive of the Year" award. Jim sits on the board of companies including AOL Time Warner, Federal Express, Mayo Foundation, Sun Microsystems, Inc., TechNet, and Webvan Group.