McGraw-Hill Names Simon Allen CEO

New York, NY (May 4, 2020) - McGraw-Hill, the leading learning science company, today announced that Simon Allen has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, and will join the company’s Board of Directors. Mr. Allen had served as Interim CEO since October 2019.

“Simon has demonstrated tremendous leadership during his time as interim CEO and over his many years in the education sector,” said Larry Berg, Senior Partner with Apollo Global Management and chairman of the Board of McGraw-Hill. “His ability to inspire and motivate people, his knowledge of the business born of years of experience in this sector and his vision for growing our business make him the right choice. He has a deep understanding of what’s needed to drive the company’s success and we look forward to continuing our work with him.”

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue to lead McGraw-Hill,” Mr. Allen said. “Our company has extraordinary strengths – the best talent, technology and content in the industry, a deeply trusted brand and an unwavering commitment to students and educators to help them succeed. I look forward to building our business in a way that will benefit our customers, our employees and our investors.”

Going forward the company will continue to focus on creating the world-class content it is known for, providing best-in-class digital platforms for learners and educators, and operating efficiently and effectively. More than half of the company’s billings now come from its digital offerings.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, McGraw-Hill assisted more than 7,000 instructors at 1,500 U.S. colleges and universities. Educators who had been using print learning materials, whether McGraw-Hill materials or not, were offered free access to online course materials through the remainder of the disrupted term. Over 110,000 students registered  for free access to Connect, McGraw-Hill’s easy-to-use homework and learning management solution, or ALEKS, McGraw-Hill’s web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system courseware. For K-12 schools, colleges and professional schools around the world, McGraw-Hill provided free webinars, training and resources to help educators move to online learning.

Building on its strong performance in 2019 and into the first calendar quarter of this year, the company will continue to proactively explore options for its capital structure in 2020.

Before being named Interim CEO, Mr. Allen served as President of the company’s Higher Ed and International business units after rejoining McGraw-Hill in March 2018.

He has extensive experience in the education sector having led large teams across six continents focused on K-12 and higher education, as well as science, technical and medical digital and print products for professional, governmental and institutional markets.

Before rejoining McGraw-Hill, Simon was the CEO of Macmillan Education, leading the company’s transition from print to blended learning products and solutions. Previously, he was Senior Vice President, International at The McGraw-Hill Companies and during that time was elected President of The Publishers Association in the U.K., serving for three years on its council. Before that, Simon was President, Higher Education at both Pearson Education EMEA and Prentice Hall Europe. Earlier in his career, he held sales leadership roles with the Times Mirror Group in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.