11:48 a.m. | Updated Rona Fairhead, chief executive of Pearson PLC’s Financial Times Group and a member of Pearson’s board of directors, will step down in April, the company said Tuesday. She will be the second high-level executive in recent months to leave Pearson, the London-based media conglomerate.
Ms. Fairhead’s resignation comes after Pearson’s longtime chief executive, Marjorie Scardino, said in October that she would leave the company after nearly 16 years in her current role. John Fallon, currently the chief executive for Pearson’s international education division, will take over as chief executive in January.
The departures of two executives who had championed the company’s print publishing assets, including The Financial Times newspaper, have fueled speculation that Pearson will seek to sell its rose-colored business daily, known as The FT, so that it can focus on its fast-growing education business.
In October, Pearson reached an agreement with Bertelsmann, the German media company, to combine Pearson’s Penguin publishing house with Bertelsmann’s Random House. Under the agreement, which is still subject to approval from regulators, Bertelsmann would control 53 percent of the combined Penguin-Random House division.
Among the companies that analysts have said could make a bid to acquire The FT are Thomson Reuters, which has an editorial staff of thousands but no print publication. Bloomberg LP could also explore a purchase of the paper, to help its journalism gain more exposure outside the financial terminal business; the company also owns Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. Spokesmen for Reuters and Bloomberg declined to comment when previously asked about a potential bid for the publication.
A Pearson spokesman, Charles Goldsmith, said Ms. Fairhead’s decision to leave Pearson was “completely unrelated to ownership of The FT.”
Last week, Mr. Fallon visited the London headquarters of The Financial Times to squelch concerns on both the business and editorial sides and assure the staff that the newspaper was not for sale.
For the past 11 years Ms. Fairhead, 50, has served in various senior roles at Pearson including chief financial officer. Since 2006, she has served as chairman and chief executive of the Financial Times Group, a unit that includes The Financial Times, FT.com and a 50 percent stake in The Economist. Her tenure and seniority made Ms. Fairhead a top candidate to replace Ms. Scardino, but Pearson instead chose Mr. Fallon. In a news release, the company said Ms. Fairhead was leaving “to pursue the next phase of her career outside Pearson.”
A replacement was not immediately named, but the company said that during a hangover period, Ms. Fairhead would help prepare the incoming chief.
“She led a fundamental restructuring and refocusing of the FT Group, including its successful development of digital businesses, and leaves a strong organization with a bright future in a highly challenging industry,” Ms. Scardino said in a statement.