A restructuring in ProQuest's information and learning group has resulted in the resignation of group president Joe Reynolds. With Reynolds's departure, information and learning group executives will report directly to Alan Aldworth, ProQuest president and chief operating officer.
As part of the reorganization, ProQuest has created a new business unit, ProQuest Education, whose operations will be geared directly to the education community. The core business within the unit will be XanEdu, the company's coursepack operation. The new unit will report directly to Aldworth. No one has been named to head ProQuest Education, although the company said it intends to appoint someone to that post, as well as a person to oversee the rest of the information and learning group, in 2003. ProQuest said the new structure will allow it to better focus on product development, operational execution and customer relationships.
For the third quarter ended September 30, sales in the information and learning group rose 8%, to $61.7 million, driven by a 13.5% increase in its electronic products, which include coursepacks and specialized products. Aldworth said that budget constraints have caused a slowdown in sales to library markets; as a result, he expects sales for the full year to be up about 8% over 2001, a slightly slower growth rate than originally forecast. For the first nine months of the year, sales in the group were up 8%, to $186.9 million.
