CEO SEESAW: Macmillan Higher Education and Macmillian New Ventures will have a new CEO in Ken Michaels, who joined the company in 2013 as the global chief operating officer of Macmillan Science and Education. Macmillan New Ventures launched in July 2012 with $100 million to acquire edtech companies and currently lists six of them in its portfolio. The move will be official once the merger between Macmillan Science and Education and Springer Sciece+Business is completed, according to a press release.
Over at Follett, a distributor of educational content and services, Mary Lee Schneider has retired as President and CEO, a post she has held since November 2012. She has also been on the company’s board since 2001. Schneider oversaw the creation of the $50 million Follett Knowledge Fund that has invested in ThinkCERCA, Vocabulary.com, ShowEvidence and ClassOwl. Taking her place will be Ray A. Griffith, who surely knows a thing or two about sourcing, scaling and selling from his time as President and CEO of Ace Hardware.
