Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Appoints Mike Evans as Chief Revenue Officer, New Leadership Role Enables Deeper Focus on Customer

 Learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced that it has appointed Mike Evans as its first Chief Revenue Officer. In this newly created position, Evans will be responsible for HMH’s K-12 go-to-market strategy and customer lifecycle through the leadership of a new customer-focused organization at HMH.

The CRO role, gaining popularity in the technology industry, offers unified orchestration among the intertwined teams responsible for customer success. At HMH, Evans will provide holistic leadership across the essential functions of sales, marketing, customer success, technical support and enterprise project management. This structure will support HMH’s sharpened focus on building a continuous product development and delivery model to empower educators with connected solutions that seamlessly integrate the many learning programs and tools they use each day.

To further enable this shift, HMH has appointed Peter George as Chief Technology Officer, leading a newly-created technology solutions group focused on the architecture of its digital platform and the successful delivery and application of its solutions. George, previously HMH’s Chief Engineering Officer, will oversee the engineering, learning science, software design and platform management teams, which together will concentrate on refining the end-to-end digital customer experience.

HMH has also affirmed its commitment to the general manager leadership model across its lines of business, and has appointed Amy Dunkin, formerly HMH’s Chief Marketing Officer, to EVP and GM of Professional Services. Critical to HMH’s Learning Company vision, HMH Professional Services nurtures the central role of the educator in the learning experience, encompassing best-in-class professional learning, coaching and consulting, including the International Center for Leadership in Education, Math Solutions and Literacy Solutions.

“These changes will continue to fuel our evolution from publishing company focused on content to learning company focused on outcomes by deepening our comprehensive support for customers and building superior connected solutions that are simple and effective,” said Jack Lynch, President and CEO. “I’m thrilled to deepen our leadership bench with these strategic  promotions, and to welcome Mike to HMH. Mike’s deep expertise in the K-12 domain as a general manager, finance executive and chief operating officer make him particularly well-suited to lead this newly created customer function which is so critical to our strategy.”

“This is the perfect time to bring together the customer-facing professionals at HMH to promote student success, and I am pleased and honored to work with a great team in this new leadership role,” said Evans. “The company has set the stage for a new iterative and ongoing customer relationship that will help students, teachers and administrators further their goal of achieving the best for each student. It’s great to be a part of this important transformation.”

A veteran of the K-12 education space, Evans brings decades of leadership experience to the table, most recently as Chief Financial Officer at McGraw Hill Education, where he was instrumental in affecting its proposed merger with Cengage. Previously, Evans served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Renaissance Learning. He also held several senior leadership positions at Pearson Education and was Chief Operating Officer at Bigchalk, a K-12 library database provider. Evans will join HMH on Sept. 16.

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ: HMHC) is a learning company committed to delivering integrated solutions that engage learners, empower educators and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K–12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students’ potential and extend teachers’ capabilities. HMH serves more than 50 million students and 3 million educators in 150 countries, while its award-winning children’s books, novels, non-fiction, and reference titles are enjoyed by readers throughout the world. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.