Larry Neal Appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Skillsoft

Skillsoft, the global leader in eLearning and Talent Management, today announced it has appointed Larry Neal as Chief Executive Officer of the group. Bill Donoghue, current CEO, becomes Executive Chairman.

Most recently, Larry has led businesses for S&P Global, formerly McGraw-Hill Financial. As President of S&P Platts, he drove outstanding growth, nearly tripling revenues in seven years. Platts has customers in 170 countries, 60% of revenues outside of North America, and over 1,000 staff across 15 global locations. Prior to Platts, he led significant performance improvements at both the S&P Equity Research and S&P Index Services businesses.

Earlier in his career, Larry led several product, sales and marketing organizations and has extensive sales leadership experience. He started his career at General Electric and IBM, then moving in to sales and business leadership positions at technology-enabled content companies Advent Software, ADP and McGraw-Hill.

"Larry is an outstanding and experienced executive, having repeatedly delivered exceptional P&L performance for five companies. He has a reputation for bringing a unique blend of strategic insight with operational excellence and a relentless customer focus," said Bill Donoghue, Executive Chairman of the Skillsoft Group. "I am thrilled Larry is joining us and confident he will make an excellent long-term CEO."

Mr. Neal said: "I am delighted to be joining Skillsoft following the transformation of the group to a digital technology company. It is a world leader in online learning and talent management, with a huge and diverse portfolio of great clients, and committed, dedicated teams across the world. I am looking forward to working with the team through the next phase of the company's development."

Frank van den Bosch, Partner at Charterhouse Capital Partners, owners of Skillsoft, said: "Bill Donoghue stepped into the CEO role to lead the company through a huge transformation over the past 15 months, which has now been successfully completed. That transformation of Skillsoft into a digital technology company prepared the ground for a new long-term CEO and we are excited Larry is joining us. Larry brings a track record of growth experience, and is an exceptional operator and leader, whilst Bill will provide continuity and strategic guidance to the team as Executive Chairman."