Marjorie Scardino

Marjorie Scardino
Marjorie Scardino at Financial Times 125th Anniversary Party, London, in June 2013
Born	Marjorie Morris (1947-01-25) 25 January 1947 Arizona[1]
Residence	London
Nationality	American
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	Baylor University
Occupation	Chief executive
Employer	Pearson PLC
Spouse(s)	Albert Scardino

Dame Marjorie Morris Scardino, DBE, FRSA (born 25 January 1947) is an American-born British business executive. She is the former CEO of Pearson PLC. Dame Marjorie became a trustee of Oxfam during her tenure at Pearson . She has been criticized by Private Eye magazine because, while Oxfam campaigns against corporate tax avoidance as part of the IF Coalition , Pearson was "a prolific tax haven user...routing hundreds of millions of pounds through an elaborate series of Luxembourg companies (and a Luxembourg branch of a UK company) to avoid tax".^[2] She became the first female Chief Executive of a FTSE 100 company when she was appointed CEO of Pearson^[3] in 1997. She is also a non-executive director of Nokia^[4] and former CEO of the Economist Group.^[5] During her time at Pearson, she had tripled profits to a record £942m.^[6] In December 2013, she joined the board of Twitter ^[7] as its first female director, after a controversy involving a lack of diversity on the Twitter board.^[8]

Early life and education

Scardino was born in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1947, and grew up in Texarkana, Texas. While living in Texas she participated in rodeo riding as a teenager.^[9] Scardino is a graduate of Baylor University with a BA in French and psychology in 1969. She began law school at George Washington University but dropped out to become a journalist at Associated Press in Charleston, West Virginia, and later obtained her law degree from the University of San Francisco School of Law.^[10]

Career

Before 1985, Scardino was the editor of the newspaper, The Georgia Gazette.

She is the board chair^[11] of the MacArthur Foundation and a board member of the Carter Center.^[12] She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.^[10] She also won the 2002 Benjamin Franklin Medal.^[13]

In 2007, she was listed 17th on the Forbes list of the 100 most powerful women in the World.^[14]

On October 3, 2012, it was announced that she will step down as CEO of Pearson to be replaced by John Fallon.^[15][16]

In December 2013, she joined the board of Twitter ^[7] as its first female director, after a controversy involving a lack of diversity on the Twitter board.^[8]

Personal life

Scardino is married to Albert Scardino,^[5] whom she worked with during her time at The Georgia Gazette and later a media reporter for The New York Times. Her son is actor Hal Scardino.

Although she was born in the United States, she has taken British citizenship.^[17]

Awards and Honors

Scardino received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2001 ^[18]

In 2014, Scardino received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Roehampton.^[19]

References

External links

• Chief executive at Pearson PLC
• Profile at Bloomberg Businessweek
• #3 of 10 Global Leaders at Fortune, September 29, 2010
• Works by or about Marjorie Scardino in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Pearson PLC
Financial Times Group	The Banker fDi Investors Chronicle Money Management PWM Vedomosti (33%)
Pearson Education	Pearson School Addison-Wesley Dorling Kindersley Heinemann (outside US) Modern Curriculum Press Prentice Hall Scott Foresman Silver Burdett York Notes Pearson Higher Education Addison-Wesley Allyn & Bacon Benjamin Cummings Longman Prentice Hall Propero Pearson Professional Addison-Wesley Professional Adobe Press Apple Certified Allyn & Bacon Professional Cisco Press FT Press IBM Press InformIT New York Institute of Finance Peachpit Pearson Assessment & Information Prentice Hall Professional SAMS Publishing Pearson VUE Wharton Other Edexcel Pearson College Pearson Language Tests Wall Street Institute
Other	80 Strand Glen Moreno Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray Marjorie Scardino Penguin Random House
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