Brian Napack, who took over as Wiley president and CEO in December 2017, has resigned from those posts. He has been replaced by Matthew Kissner, who has been named interim CEO, effective immediately. This is the second time Kissner has stepped in as interim CEO at Wiley, first taking over that role prior to Napack’s appointment six years ago. Kissner previously served as Wiley group executive and board chair.
Earlier this year, Napack and the Wiley executive team announced a plan to streamline the company’s operations to focus on research and learning and, in the process, sell businesses that generated $393 million—9% of Wiley’s $2.02 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ended April 30, 2023. Sales and earnings in fiscal year 2023 didn’t meet expectations in the year, Napack said in announcing the financial results and plan to streamline operations. Executives are calling fiscal 2024 a “transition year,” with results of the streamlining to hit in fiscal 2025.
In its announcement, Wiley said that Kissner “will leverage his in-depth knowledge of Wiley’s operations and his professional experience to execute this plan and ensure a smooth transition.” In addition to overseeing Wiley’s business transformation, Kissner is expected to “develop the next generation of leadership at Wiley,” company board chair Jesse Wiley said. Wiley made no mention of whether it is currently searching for a permanent CEO.
“A highly experienced C-level executive and Wiley veteran, Matt brings a deep understanding of Wiley’s markets, operations, and people,” Jesse Wiley said in a statement. “He is well-positioned to hit the ground running as we advance our plans to materially improve profitability and performance and drive consistent growth in the years to come.”
In a June investor call, Napack conceded that fiscal 2023 did not play out as the company expected, citing “macro and market headwinds” that drove lower spending in the learning markets as the market unwound from the Covid-19 bump. More significantly, Wiley took a hit from a “content integrity issue” at Hindawi, which was the result of “external misconduct by non-Wiley editors,” and which significantly impacted Wiley’s bottom line.
Nevertheless, Napack sounded a positive note for the future. "You've heard me say before that a simpler Wiley is a better Wiley, and we are now acting to achieve this goal," he said, adding that the company expected "restructuring and rightsizing" to start showing benefits later in fiscal 2024, "building toward their full realization in fiscal '25 and '26 and beyond."
Priori to joining Wiley, Napack held various corporate positions in, and outside of, publishing. Immediately before moving to Wiley he was at Providence Equity Partners, a global private equity firm where he has been a senior advisor focused on investments in education and media. Before that, Napack was president of Macmillan where he oversaw the company’s education, consumer books, digital media, and magazine businesses. He joined Macmillan after serving as a partner at LEK Consulting, a global management consulting company. Other credits include founding ThinkBox, a digital media company focused on pre K-12 education. He also founded and ran Disney Educational Publishing and was cofounder of Disney Interactive.
