Pearson CEO to step down
Pearson PLC, the U.K. publisher and education company, said Wednesday
that chief executive Marjorie Scardino has decided to step down.
Scardino, aged 65, has been chief executive since 1997 — managing the company through a time of significant change in the media world. She led Pearson’s transformation from a diverse conglomerate to a “learning company” and helped raise its profile in the United States.
The publisher of the Financial Times and Penguin Group books said Wednesday it expects more than half its revenues to come from digital and services businesses for the first time this year.
Pearson has focused
extensive resources on
education under Scardino’s
watch.
A former partner in a Savannah, Ga. law firm, Scardino and her husband
founded The Georgia Gazette newspaper, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1984. She is a native of the United States with Texas roots who became chief executive
of the Economist Group before joining Pearson.
She will be replaced on
Jan. 1, 2013 by John Fallon .