Born in 1958, Rodney C. Adkins grew up in Miami and earned multiple degrees from Rollins College and Georgia Tech before joining IBM in 1981 as a test engineer. In the early 1990s, he helped to develop the flagship IBM ThinkPad, one of the first laptop computers in the world. Adkins went on to serve as IBM corporate officer and senior vice president of development and manufacturing for the systems and technology group — the first Black American to earn that position at the company. He is currently chairman of Avnet, president of 3RAM Group, and on the boards of several major corporations, including UPS and PayPal.
Adkins and his wife Michelle are also active in civic and philanthropic life. They are among the founding donors of Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., joining other prominent Black philanthropists such as Oprah Winfrey, Robert F. Smith and Shonda Rhimes. Inside Philanthropy recently connected with Rod and Michelle Adkins over Zoom to find out more about that big gift, as well as the couple’s broader giving, which supports education, STEM and more.
Kicking things off
Rodney Adkins grew up humbly in Liberty City in Northwest Miami. This was the same neighborhood where the Miami Riots of 1980 broke out after Black insurance salesman and U.S. Marine Arthur McDuffie was killed during a traffic stop. Rodney credits education for providing him a path to success, as does Michelle, a retired CPA who worked in government. Rodney graduated from Miami Jackson High School as valedictorian in 1976 and Michelle graduated from the same school as salutatorian in 1979. They met at Georgia Tech and have been married for some four decades.
“Our families, we grew up in meager backgrounds. We had what we needed… but if it weren’t for scholarships, we wouldn’t have had the college educations that we had,” Michelle said.
Eventually, the couple felt they were in a position to really start giving back. As for precisely when they hit that point, the couple mention a watershed moment in 2007 when Adkins won Black Engineer of the Year by U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine. The Adkins couple decided that STEM and STEAM education would be an important bedrock of their philanthropy. Today, the couple help fund the Rodney C. Adkins Legacy Award for Business Transformation, given to distinguished Black leaders including 2024 award winner Bertrand Damiba, director of product development of Google. Other awardees have included Huntley B. Myrie, vice president for strategy and commercial business programs at Spirit AeroSystems Inc. and Verett Mims, who worked at Boeing for nearly two decades.
When Adkins stepped away from IBM as an executive in 2014, he also joined a range of corporate and nonprofit boards. “This is sort of the second part of my career. And Michelle has been part of that journey now for 45 years,” Rodney said.
“The past and the future”
The story of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., can be told from many angles. We’ve reported in the past about how it’s a story of Black philanthropy, not just of big names and corporations, but of ordinary citizens: $4 million alone came in gifts of less than $1,000. The museum opened its permanent home in 2016 with a ceremony led by President Barack Obama. In 2022, it welcomed 1,092,552 visitors, and was second-most visited Smithsonian museum.
Rodney joined the Smithsonian national board in 2009, where he had an inside look as the museum was breaking ground, and was involved in planning discussions. “As you can imagine, when you have a project like that, most of the discussion is financial,” Rodney said. At that time, Rodney said, Smithsonian museums were historically funded 50% from the government and 50% from individuals. But for NMAAHC, the government only funded the museum to the tune of 30 to 40%, he said. So leadership had to get creative and really cultivate individual donors and foundations.
Rodney ran in circles with Ken Chenault, the former American Express CEO, who was also an IBM director when Rodney was a senior executive. He calls Chenault essential as a leader in the process, serving as a member of NMAAHC’s advisory council in 2007 and chairing the museum’s capital campaign. The businessman came to Rodney and convinced him of the value of becoming a founding donor.
“I had a discussion with Ken and that was one of those discussions where the only answer was, ‘Yes, we’ll support this effort in some form,’” Rodney said, adding that he and Michelle were really sold on what the museum represented and wanted to be part of it in a significant way. “We decided to go in pretty heavy as a founding donor.”
They call the museum a “complete product” that showcases American history through the African American experience. “The thing that’s beautiful about it, as you go up in the museum, it starts to represent the present and then the possibilities of the future. It’s a complete story,” Rodney said.
Michelle added the importance of setting an example as a donor and then seeing the trickle-down effect of that on others.
Other work and looking ahead
The couple’s philanthropy has also touched several educational institutions including Georgia Tech, Rollins College and University of Maryland Baltimore County, the alma mater of one of their sons. Some of this work has involved scholarships. The couple have kept Georgia Tech on their radar through the years and Michelle has served on the Alumni Association’s board of trustees.
One notable gift resulted in the 2018 unveiling of a Rosa Parks installation titled “Continuing the Conversation,” dedicated to the Civil Rights hero and icon. It depicts Parks at both 42 years old, when she bravely sat on that Montgomery bus, and at 92 years old, the final year of her life, as though in dialogue with each other and the audience.
The gift was made as Georgia Tech itself was celebrating 50 years since the founding of the first Black organization on campus. As with the Smithsonian gift, the couple realized that their philanthropy could help catalyze others to give, and not just within the Black community.
“After we made that step and did Rosa Parks, there were white philanthropists at Georgia Tech… one gentleman decided he wanted to honor the first three Black students to matriculate [at Georgia Tech],” Michelle said, adding that another donor is now talking about doing something similar to honor the legacy of female students.
According to Rodney, the white donor who funded the exhibit honoring those Black pioneering students spoke of his regret about not standing up many years ago when one of those students was in his class decades ago and faced racism. “When we did the dedication, all three of them came back and told their stories.”
The couple are also involved in their local Florida community, supporting arts and cultural institutions. They sponsor Free Gospel Sundays, a program at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County. The effort has been going on for a decade and a half and brings in popular gospel singers from around the country. They see it as a way to give back to the communities that raised them.
Rodney said he’s particularly proud of the way they’ve been able to inspire other donors, while looking back with appreciation at the mentorship he’s received from figures like Ken Chenault. As for the future, he just hopes to keep up the momentum. “Hopefully, we’ll continue to be in a position where we can give back and influence others,” Rodney said.
