Pearson

Pearson plc is a London-based media conglomerate. It is the largest book publisher in the UK, India, Australia and New Zealand, and the second largest in the US and Canada. In 2003 it had sales of £4,048m ($7,246m) and operating profits of £490m ($877m). Marjorie Scardino has been CEO since 1997. Its headquarters today are at 80 Strand, the former Shell Mex House.

In January 2007 it was widely reported that plans are afoot for Pearson to be taken over by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which drove the shares to new 5-year highs.

Pearson has branched out into related services: testing and learning software for students of all ages; data for financial institutions; public information systems for government departments. The Financial Times is a subsidiary of Pearson PLC.

They also own the following publishing houses: Penguin, Dorling Kindersley, Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, Addison Wesley and Longman. Pearson is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges (UK: PSON; NYSE: PSO) and in 2007 had sales of £4,218m ($8,394m) and an operating profit of £634m ($1,262m).

People

• Dennis Stevenson

Board of Directors

Glen Moreno, Chairman | Marjorie Scardino, Chief Executive | Robin Freestone, Chief Financial Officer | David Bell, Director for People and Chairman of Pearson Inc | Will Ethridge, Chief Executive, North American Education | Rona Fairhead Chief Executive, Financial Times Group | John Makinson, Chairman and Chief Executive, Penguin

Affiliations

• Media Standards Trust
• Chime Communications Plc
• Brunswick Group
• Community Action Network
  • Lord Gibson, chairman of Pearson Longman, which owns the FT
• Centre for European Reform
• ERA
• Digital Learning Alliance
• Media CSR Forum
• PubAffairs Public Affairs Manager for Edexcel, part of Pearson plc. Before joining Edexcel she was the Corpora...
• Porter Novelli, client 2004
• Don Cruickshank Information and Entertainment division of Pearson plc (which included the Financial Times)
• Ditchley Foundation
  • Dr Glen R Moreno Chairman, Pearson plc.
• Unilever
  • John Makinson, Group Finance Director of Pearson plc
• Lord Cowdray of Pearson printing and banking company. Lazards was owned by the Pearson family, headed by Lord Cowdray.
• Greg Dyke former Chairman and Chief Executive at Pearson Television
• Open Europe
  • Lord Blakenham former Chairman, Pearson Plc

Lobbying firms

• Blue Rubicon

Resources

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