ProQuest this week announced that it has reorganized into six business units, and named a new executive team. In addition, sources tell PW that 40 jobs have been eliminated across the company, which employs some 1,800 people. In a statement, Proquest officials said the moves would make the organization "flatter and more agile," and more responsive to customer needs. The jobs that were eliminated were mainly in the management area and a spokesperson said ProQuest is still hiring for new positions and will end the year with close to the same number of employees it had at the beginning of 2011.
The moves come some four months after Kurt Sanford succeeded Marty Kahn as ProQuest CEO.
Among the changes, ProQuest has moved Bowker under the direction of Michael Gersch, senior v-p and general manager of Serials Solutions. With the move, two Bowker executives are leaving the company--Gary Aiello and Charles Halpin. The combined Serial Solutions/Bowker business will now comprise "ProQuest Workflow Solutions."
Other members of the new executive team are:
Rod Gauvin, senior v-p and general manager heads ProQuest Information Solutions and is responsible for all library markets. Gauvin joined the company in March 2001.
Tim Wahlberg, senior v-p and general manager of ProQuest Corporate Market Solutions leads the corporate market business, including ProQuest Dialog and also heads up the enterprise-wide strategy and business development function. Wahlberg joined ProQuest earlier this year from Thomson Reuters.
Rich LaFauci, senior v-p and general manager of ProQuest Research Solutions, leads the consumer business as well as product brands RefWorks and the recently launched Pivot for research development professionals. Prior to joining ProQuest, LaFauci led the Technology Capability team for Digitas.
Kevin Sayar, president and general manager of ebrary, acquired last year by ProQoest. Sayar will continue to focus on building the ebrary business.
Boe Horton, senior v-p and managing director of ProQuest East Asia, will continue his focus on developing products and services for customers in that region. He joined ProQuest in 2007, and is based in Hong Kong.
ProQuest has expanded into several new areas in the last two years through internal growth as well as through acquisitions that included Congressional Information Services and University Publications of America in 2010 and ebrary earlier this year, an acquisition that extended ProQuest’s content base to include e-books.
Rounding out the executive team that will report to Sanford: Phil Evans, Chief Financial Officer; Kevin Norris, General Counsel and Senior Vice President Global Content Alliance; Simon Beale, Senior Vice President Global Sales and Training; and Lynda James-Gilboe, Senior Vice President Enterprise Marketing and Customer Care. Sy Inwentarz is serving as Interim Chief Information Officer and Jill Hutton is Interim Head of Human Resources.
