Affiliated Computer Services CEO At Home With Homeless

When a pair of Wall Street analysts upgraded their stock ratings on Affiliated Computer Services last month, ACS Chief Executive Lynn Blodgett must have let out a big sigh of relief.

Blodgett, 53, had a truly draining 2007. In March, the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management proposed a $7.7 billion buyout to take ACS ACS private. In June, it raised its bid to $8.1 billion.

As ACS directors debated the offer, a public squabble broke out between the board and Darwin Deason, the founder and chairman of ACS, who wanted shareholders to vote on the deal. Blodgett was caught in the middle. Cerberus later withdrew its offer when the subprime mortgage crisis resulted in a growing credit crunch.

Throughout the ordeal, Blodgett had a lot of work to do in his spare time. He created a visually striking book of his own black-and-white photographs. The collection, titled "Finding Grace," (Earth Aware Editions) came out in November and is available at many bookstores or directly at earthawareeditions.com. It's a set of portraits, often moving, of homeless people that Blodgett took during his business trips around the country.

All proceeds from the book benefit the Finding Grace Homeless Initiative set up by Blodgett. His goal is to help readers confront their biases by portraying homeless people as real folks. The homeless often include poor mothers and children, not just drug addicts and the mentally unstable, though all homeless need help, says Blodgett. Boosted by a feature on Sunday by Charles Osgood on the "CBS News Sunday Morning" show, 'Finding Grace' on Tuesday morning ranked No. 187 on the Amazon.com best-selling books list.

"The message of the book is that it's easy to dismiss homeless people if you dehumanize them," he said. "I want to have people look them in the eyes and see their inner souls."

Blodgett's photos remind viewers to notice "what we have trained ourselves not to see," writes Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, in the book's preface.

"Statistics speak from a distance while Blodgett's photographs frame the shame of homelessness in the richest nation on earth with startling intimacy," she wrote.

Over much of the past year, ACS -- which handles various business processes for corporate customers -- struggled to find its own home. Some ACS directors waged a heated battle with Deason, who wanted the Cerberus offer put to a vote of shareholders.

Deason threatened a proxy battle to replace the board for dragging their feet and torpedoing the offer. Opposition board members shot back with an angry, public letter. They called Deason's actions "a remarkable piece of bullying and thuggery." In the end, five directors resigned.

ACS is on the mend. The stock is up 12% this year despite a dismal market for tech and other stocks.

In its fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31, ACS far exceeded analysts views with a per-share profit of 90 cents. Analysts expected 83 cents. Revenue of $1.5 billion, up 6%, met forecasts.

"ACS is a good company in good times and a great company in harder times, because we help save people money," Blodgett said.

UBS analyst Adam Frisch agrees. Last month he upgraded ACS to buy from neutral, with a price target of 51 per share. Two days later, Bryan Keane of Credit Suisse bumped up his ACS rating to outperform from neutral, with a target of 55. "We believe the turnaround story for ACS has just begun," Keane wrote in a note to investors. "In challenging times, ACS has historically not only been defensive, but tends to thrive."

Dallas-based ACS has 62,000 employees in more than 100 countries. It hosts computer networks and provides outsourced business processes. Its work involves everything from managing toll collections to processing student loans.

Publishing a photography book about homeless people might seem a huge stretch for the wealthy head of a global corporation, but Blodgett says he was guided by core convictions that stem from his lifelong Mormon faith.

"As a corporate leader, I've been given an awful lot," he said. "So I think I have a huge responsibility to try to help others."

Blodgett got started with cameras by taking photos of falcons as he worked to become a master falconer in the 1990s. He came into his own behind the lens at a 2003 photography workshop in Santa Fe, N.M. The workshop was led by Andrew Eccles, a pro photographer who shoots magazine covers and movie posters.

For an early assignment, Blodgett brought back a series of photos that portrayed a downtrodden yet hopeful man who lived in a ramshackle trailer with his son. Eccles says Blodgett had captured a special emotion.

"Lynn was extremely curious and eager to learn, and wonderfully humble," Eccles said. "He excelled by finding that extraordinary man. The pictures he took were both sad and moving. I thought he really had something."

The project evolved to focus on portraits of the homeless, and Blodgett became consumed by it. After his business meetings wrapped up in cities around the country, he would hustle off to visit nearby homeless shelters. At each shelter, he would pay local homeless people to pose. He hired other homeless people to work as assistants on the shoots.

Those photos were compiled into "Finding Grace," which served as the centerpiece for the "Help the Homeless Week" campaign in Dallas last fall. Sales of the photos and books partly helped the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance raise $5 million toward its goal of $20 million.

Blodgett's photos gave the campaign "a wonderful patina of class and dignity," and helped tie the fund-raising campaign together, says Mike Rawlings, the homeless czar for the city of Dallas. Rawlings is also a managing partner with the private equity firm CIC Partners, and former president of Yum Brands' YUM Pizza Hut unit.

"Lynn's work laid out our challenges with real images, which elevated everyone's game to the next level," Rawlings said. "Every organization needs an anthem, if you will, and this book has provided that for us."

Shots from the book can be seen online at findinggracehomeless.org.