Pearson leadership
Driving education forward
Board of Directors
Sidney Taurel
Chair
Member of the Nomination & Governance and Remuneration Committees
Aged 70, appointed 1 January 2016.
Sidney has over 45 years of experience in business and finance, and is currently a Director of IBM Corporation, where he also serves on the directors and corporate governance committee. Sidney is an advisory board member at pharmaceutical firm Almirall. He was Chief Executive Officer of global pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company from 1998 until 2008, Chairman from 1999 until 2008, and has been Chairman Emeritus since 2009. He was also a Director at McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., a role which he held from 1996 until April 2016 and at ITT Industries from 1996 to 2001. In 2002, Sidney received three US presidential appointments to: the Homeland Security Advisory Council, the President’s Export Council and the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, and is an officer of the French Legion of Honour.
Andy Bird, CBE
Chief Executive
Member of the Reputation & Responsibility Committees
Aged 56, first appointed to the Board 1 May 2020, appointed as Chief Executive Officer 19 October 2020
Andy has a long and distinguished career spanning 35 years in the media industry. Most recently he spent 14 years working for The Walt Disney Company, joining the business as President of Walt Disney International in 2004, before being appointed Chairman in 2008. He held this role for a decade, during which time he transformed the organisation, significantly enhancing its local presence in countries around the world. He also worked to establish the Disney brand in China, through the creation of Disney English, teaching English language to Chinese families through immersive learning experiences.
Prior to this, Andy worked in a variety of senior positions at AOL Time Warner, and spent the earlier part of his career in a variety of roles at Piccadilly Radio, Virgin Broadcasting Company, BSB Music Channel, Big & Good Productions and Unique Broadcasting.
Sally Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
Aged 46, appointed 24 April 2020.
Sally joined Pearson in 2000, and has held various finance and operations roles across The Penguin Group, the education business and at a corporate level. She brings to the Board extensive commercial and strategic finance experience as well as transformation, treasury, tax, risk management, business and financial operations, investor relations and M&A expertise. She has held various senior level roles across the business, most recently as Deputy CFO of Pearson. Sally is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and trained at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She was also a Trustee for the Pearson Pension Plan from 2012 to 2018.
Dame Elizabeth Corley, DBE
Non-Executive Director
Chair of the Remuneration Committee and Member of the Audit and Nomination & Governance Committees
Aged 62, appointed 1 May 2014.
Elizabeth has extensive experience in the financial services industry, having been CEO of Allianz Global Investors, initially for Europe then globally, from 2005 to 2016, and continues to act as a senior adviser to the firm. She was previously at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Coopers & Lybrand. Elizabeth is a Non-Executive Director of BAE Systems plc and Morgan Stanley Inc. Elizabeth is active in representing the investment industry and developing standards within it. She currently chairs a Taskforce for the UK government on social impact investing. She is a member of the Committee of 200. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2019 for her services to the economy and financial services.
Sherry Coutu, CBE
Non-Executive Director
Member of Nomination & Governance and Remuneration Committees
Aged 55, appointed 1 May 2019.
Sherry serves on the boards of a range of companies, charities and universities with a focus on consumer digital, information services, and education. She founded Interactive Investor International plc and currently chairs Founders4Schools, Workfinder, Raspberry Pi Trading and the Scale-Up Institute. She serves as a Non-Executive Director at London Stock Exchange plc, sits on the board of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, and until recently served as a Non-Executive Director of Zoopla Property Group plc. She has also served as an advisory board member for LinkedIn. Sherry was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to entrepreneurship in the New Year’s Honours List 2013.
Vivienne Cox, CBE
Senior Independent Director
Chair of the Nomination & Governance Committee and Member of the Audit and Reputation & Responsibility Committees
Aged 59, appointed 1 January 2012
Vivienne has wide experience in energy, natural resources and business innovation. She worked for BP plc for 28 years in global roles including Executive Vice President and Chief Executive of BP’s gas, power and renewables business and its alternative energy unit. She is Chair of the supervisory board of Vallourec S.A., a leader in the seamless steel pipe markets, Non-Executive Director at pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline plc and serves as Chair of the Rosalind Franklin Institute. She was appointed Commander of the British Empire in the 2016 New Year Honours for her services to the economy and sustainability.
Linda Lorimer
Non-Executive Director
Chair of the Reputation & Responsibility Committee and Member of the Audit Committee
Aged 66, appointed 1 July 2013
Linda has spent almost 40 years serving higher education. She retired from Yale in 2016 after 34 years at the university where she served in an array of senior positions including Vice President for Global & Strategic Initiatives. She oversaw the development of Yale’s burgeoning online education division and the expansion of Yale’s international programmes and centres. During her tenure, she was responsible for many administrative services, ranging from Yale’s public communications and alumni relations to sustainability, human resources and the university press. She also served on the boards of several public companies, including as Presiding Director of the McGraw-Hill companies. Linda is a member of the board of Yale New Haven Hospital, where she chairs the nominating and governance committee.
Michael Lynton
Non-Executive Director
Member of the Audit and Reputation & Responsibility Committees
Aged 59, appointed 1 February 2018
Michael served as CEO of Sony Entertainment from 2012 until 2017, overseeing Sony’s global entertainment businesses. He also served as Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment from 2004. Prior to that, he held senior roles within Time Warner and AOL, and earlier served as Chairman and CEO of Penguin Group where he extended the Penguin brand to music and the internet. Michael is Chairman of Snap, Inc., and currently serves on the boards of IEX, Warner Music and Ares Management Corporation, LLC.
Graeme Pitkethly
Non-Executive Director
Member of the Audit and Reputation & Responsibility Committees
Aged 52, appointed 1 May 2019.
Graeme joined Unilever in 2002 and, prior to being appointed CFO and Board member, was responsible for Unilever’s UK and Ireland business. Previously, he had held a number of senior financial and commercial roles within Unilever and spent the earlier part of his career in senior corporate finance roles in the telecommunications industry. Graeme served as Vice President of Financial Planning and Vice President of Corporate Development at FLAG Telecom and started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Graeme is a Vice Chair of the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures and is a Chartered Accountant.
Tim Score
Non-Executive Director
Chair of the Audit Committee and Member of the Nomination & Governance and Remuneration Committees
Aged 58, appointed 1 January 2015.
Tim has extensive experience of the technology sector in both developed and emerging markets, having served as Chief Financial Officer of ARM Holdings plc, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company, for 13 years. He is an experienced non-executive director and serves as Chairman of The British Land Company plc, a role to which he was appointed in July 2019, a non-executive director of HM Treasury, and a Trustee of the National Theatre. He served on the board of National Express Group plc from 2005 to 2014, including time as interim Chairman and six years as the Senior Independent Director. Earlier in his career Tim held senior finance roles with Rebus Group, William Baird, LucasVarity plc and BTR plc.
Lincoln Wallen
Non-Executive Director
Member of the Audit and Reputation & Responsibility Committees
Aged 58, appointed 1 January 2016.
Lincoln has extensive experience in the technology and media industries, and is currently CTO of Improbable, a technology start-up supplying next-generation cloud hosting and networking services to the video game industry. Lincoln was CEO of DWA Nova, a software-as-a-service company spun out of DreamWorks Animation Studios in Los Angeles, a position he held until 2017. He worked at DreamWorks Animation for nine years in a variety of leadership roles including Chief Technology Officer and Head of Animation Technology. He was formerly CTO at Electronic Arts Mobile, leading their entry into the mobile gaming business internationally. Lincoln is a Non-Executive Director of the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and Systems Engineering. His early career involved 20 years of professional IT and mathematics research, including as a reader in Computer Science at Oxford.
Executive Leadership
Andy Bird, CBE
Chief Executive
Member of the Reputation & Responsibility Committees
Aged 56, first appointed to the Board 1 May 2020, appointed as Chief Executive Officer 19 October 2020
Andy has a long and distinguished career spanning 35 years in the media industry. Most recently he spent 14 years working for The Walt Disney Company, joining the business as President of Walt Disney International in 2004, before being appointed Chairman in 2008. He held this role for a decade, during which time he transformed the organisation, significantly enhancing its local presence in countries around the world. He also worked to establish the Disney brand in China, through the creation of Disney English, teaching English language to Chinese families through immersive learning experiences.
Prior to this, Andy worked in a variety of senior positions at AOL Time Warner, and spent the earlier part of his career in a variety of roles at Piccadilly Radio, Virgin Broadcasting Company, BSB Music Channel, Big & Good Productions and Unique Broadcasting.
Sally Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
Aged 46, appointed 24 April 2020.
Sally joined Pearson in 2000, and has held various finance and operations roles across The Penguin Group, the education business and at a corporate level. She brings to the Board extensive commercial and strategic finance experience as well as transformation, treasury, tax, risk management, business and financial operations, investor relations and M&A expertise. She has held various senior level roles across the business, most recently as Deputy CFO of Pearson. Sally is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and trained at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She was also a Trustee for the Pearson Pension Plan from 2012 to 2018.
Tim Bozik
President, Global Product & North America Courseware
Tim is President, Global Product and North America Courseware. In this role, he oversees product strategy, research and development, and product management at Pearson. He is also responsible for Pearson’s Courseware business in the United States and Canada. Together, his team and in-market partners continue to push the boundaries of learning to create better outcomes and experiences for customers around the globe.
Tim joined the executive team in 2014 with extensive leadership experience in higher education products and the business of delivering them. Tim earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of American Publishers.
Rod Bristow
President, Pearson UK & Global Online Learning
In 2019 Rod took on responsibility to lead our global online learning businesses in schools, higher education and employer based learning, in addition to his role as president for Pearson UK.
Rod has led Pearson UK since 2010 and from 2014-2019 he also led all other core markets for Pearson.
Rod has worked in education, publishing, and assessment for more than 30 years in universities, schools, colleges, professional training, and learning technologies in the UK and internationally.
Rod is a trustee for the Education and Employers Taskforce, a fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, governor for Harlow College and the BMAT multi-academy trust, and past president of the Publishers Association. He is also chair of the judging panel for the National Teaching Awards. Rod is a graduate of University College London.
Giovanni Giovannelli
President, International
Gio was previously CEO of Grupo Multi, which was acquired by Pearson in 2013. He has also held three other CEO positions in Brazil, across different sectors. Gio is a former board member of Natura and of CVC Viagens, both listed in the São Paulo Stock Exchange.
Albert Hitchcock
Chief Technology and Operations Officer
Albert is Chief Technology and Operations Officer for Pearson, where he joined the executive team in March 2014. Albert is responsible for the technology and operations organization within Pearson. In this role, Albert leads digital product development, enterprise technology, and operations encompassing supply chain, procurement, customer service, and real estate.
Previously, Albert held the position of group chief information officer at Vodafone and prior to this was global CIO at Nortel. Albert is a fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and a chartered engineer.
Cinthia Nespoli
Chief Legal Officer
Cinthia joined Pearson in 2014, as part of the Grupo Multi acquisition, where she was the Head of Legal and Franchising. Cinthia has more than 16 years of international legal experience and has also led Pearson’s International Corporate Affairs team, managing corporate brand and reputation in numerous markets around the world. Prior to joining Pearson, she held leadership positions in the manufacturing sector at multinational companies. Born in Brazil, Cinthia was admitted to the Brazilian bar in 2004 and earned her law degree from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas and a post-graduate degree in tax law from Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. She also has professional business qualifications from the Ashbridge Business School in the UK and Northeastern University in the US.
Anna Vikström Persson
Chief Human Resources Officer
Anna Vikström Persson joined Pearson in February 2018 as the new Chief Human Resources Officer. Anna brings over 20 years of international HR experience to Pearson. She has led human resources teams for major global companies across a variety of business sectors, including telecommunications, manufacturing and engineering.
Most recently, Anna has served as executive vice president and head of group human resources for the global engineering company Sandvik, and similarly for SSAB, a global steel company. Prior to this, Anna was VP, HR & Organization for the global telecom company Ericsson. She has a certificate in German and a masters in law, as well as professional HR qualifications from both London Business School and Michigan Business School.
Bob Whelan
President, Pearson Assessment
Bob is President, Pearson Assessment and has significant expertise in assessment and growing businesses. As president and Chief Executive Officer of Pearson VUE since January 2000, Bob led Pearson’s growth as a global leader in computer-based assessments. He now leads Pearson’s combined assessments businesses including K–12 and clinical assessment as well as Pearson VUE. Bob received his BA from the University of Alabama in finance and economics.