Vivendi Universal Publishing has named Hans Gieskes CEO of Houghton Mifflin. Gieskes, who starts July 1, succeeds Nader Darehshori who is retiring as chairman, president and CEO of HM June 28. Gieskes will be based in Boston and will report to VUP chairman Agnes Touraine.
Gieskes has an eclectic background that does not include experience in traditional book publishing. He served in different executive capacities for Reed Elsevier in the Netherlands before being named president and CEO of Lexis-Nexis in 1997. He was named president of the online career Web site Monster.com in June 2000. Touraine cited Gieskes for his "impressive track record in international publishing" as well as for his "20 years experience in digital and interactive services." Gieskes's mandate will be to develop new businesses, strengthen HM's digital publishing program and create synergies with other VUP publishers.
