BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED), a leading solutions provider for the education industry, today announced leadership changes in its Retail segment, currently the Company’s largest operating unit, that will enable BNED to accelerate the execution of its strategy and better align its cost structure with current business trends by consolidating certain leadership roles.
Jonathan Shar has been appointed to the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Retail and Client Solutions, effective immediately. In this role, Mr. Shar will have overall responsibility for the growth and profitability of the Retail segment, including the development and implementation of client-focused solutions that deliver innovation and increased value to the higher education marketplace.
The Company also announced that Lisa Malat has been appointed President of Barnes & Noble College (BNC), effective immediately. In this role, Ms. Malat will have overall responsibility for the growth and profitability of BNC, providing strategic direction and operational leadership across the business, which manages physical campus bookstores and e-commerce sites nationwide.
Both Mr. Shar and Ms. Malat will continue to report directly to Michael P. Huseby, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of BNED.
“Both Lisa and Jonathan have made significant contributions to our company as we’ve evolved our offerings to best serve our rapidly changing Retail market,” said Michael P. Huseby, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, BNED.
“Since joining BNED in 2018, Jonathan has contributed significantly to our current strategy and has also brought essential customer and product perspectives to our team. He has led the development and implementation of valuable new solutions, including our new Adoption & Insights Portal, and continues to lead the design of our new e-commerce delivery system. His product delivery and personal engagement have also significantly contributed to our success in gaining new business. In his new role, Jonathan’s leadership and deep expertise in scaling valuable digital offerings, coupled with his new oversight of our physical courseware delivery, will accelerate our ability to deliver new innovative solutions, including our FirstDay™ Complete courseware delivery model, which is rapidly gaining market momentum with our campus partners.”
“Lisa has been a key contributor to BNC for more than two decades. She became Chief Operating Officer of BNC in 2018, and, since that time, she has been instrumental in developing our new go-to-market strategy, which has proven very effective in driving new business growth. She has led the development and implementation of our strategy for a reimagined omnichannel collegiate retail experience and continues to lead our strategy to accelerate growth in General Merchandise, one of the largest revenue opportunities for the Company. During a challenging time in our retail business, Lisa has demonstrated strong strategic and operational leadership that will greatly benefit the teams she will now lead that directly serve our campus partners and students.”
“I look forward to continuing to work closely with Jonathan and Lisa. I’m excited about the positive impact their individual and combined leadership strengths will have on BNED’s ability to accelerate the creation of customer and shareholder value as we execute our growth initiatives.”
BNED also announced that Barry Brover’s positions as Executive Vice President, Operations of BNED and Executive Vice President of BNC have been eliminated and that he will be leaving the Company at the end of the current fiscal year. Mr. Brover’s former responsibilities are now shared by Ms. Malat and Mr. Shar in their new roles.
“On behalf of the entire BNED Board and management team, I would like to thank Barry for his many contributions over his 34 years of service to BNED,” said Mr. Huseby. “Barry has been an important part of BNED’s evolution from the very early successes of BNC to BNED’s more recent transition from a private to a public company. His financial and operational leadership truly helped advance BNED’s mission and our ability to better serve our campus partners, faculty, students, employees and other stakeholders. We are grateful that Barry has agreed to work with our management team through the end of the fiscal year to ensure a smooth transition, and we wish him only the best in his future endeavors.”
ABOUT BARNES & NOBLE EDUCATION, INC.
Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED) is a leading solutions provider for the education industry, driving affordability, access and achievement at hundreds of academic institutions nationwide and ensuring millions of students are equipped for success in the classroom and beyond. Through its family of brands, BNED offers campus retail services and academic solutions, a digital direct-to-student learning ecosystem, wholesale capabilities and more. BNED is a company serving all who work to elevate their lives through education, supporting students, faculty and institutions as they make tomorrow a better, more inclusive and smarter world. For more information, visit www.bned.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and information relating to us and our business that are based on the beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to our management. When used in this communication, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “forecasts,” “projections,” and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management, identify forward-looking statements. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this press release may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our current views with respect to future events, the outcome of which is subject to certain risks, including, among others: general competitive conditions, including actions our competitors and content providers may take to grow their businesses; a decline in college enrollment or decreased funding available for students; decisions by colleges and universities to outsource their physical and/or online bookstore operations or change the operation of their bookstores; implementation of our digital strategy may not result in the expected growth in our digital sales and/or profitability; risk that digital sales growth does not exceed the rate of investment spend; the performance of our online, digital and other initiatives, integration of and deployment of, additional products and services including new digital channels, and enhancements to higher education digital products, and the inability to achieve the expected cost savings; the risk of price reduction or change in format of course materials by publishers, which could negatively impact revenues and margin; the general economic environment and consumer spending patterns; decreased consumer demand for our products, low growth or declining sales; the strategic objectives, successful integration, anticipated synergies, and/or other expected potential benefits of various acquisitions may not be fully realized or may take longer than expected; the integration of the operations of various acquisitions into our own may also increase the risk of our internal controls being found ineffective; changes to purchase or rental terms, payment terms, return policies, the discount or margin on products or other terms with our suppliers; our ability to successfully implement our strategic initiatives including our ability to identify, compete for and execute upon additional acquisitions and strategic investments; risks associated with operation or performance of MBS Textbook Exchange, LLC’s point-of-sales systems that are sold to college bookstore customers; technological changes; risks associated with counterfeit and piracy of digital and print materials; our international operations could result in additional risks; our ability to attract and retain employees; risks associated with data privacy, information security and intellectual property; trends and challenges to our business and in the locations in which we have stores; non-renewal of managed bookstore, physical and/or online store contracts and higher-than-anticipated store closings; disruptions to our information technology systems, infrastructure and data due to computer malware, viruses, hacking and phishing attacks, resulting in harm to our business and results of operations; disruption of or interference with third party web service providers and our own proprietary technology; work stoppages or increases in labor costs; possible increases in shipping rates or interruptions in shipping service; product shortages, including decreases in the used textbook inventory supply associated with the implementation of publishers’ direct to student textbook consignment rental programs, as well as risks associated with merchandise sourced indirectly from outside the United States; changes in domestic and international laws or regulations, including U.S. tax reform, changes in tax rates, laws and regulations, as well as related guidance; enactment of laws or changes in enforcement practices which may restrict or prohibit our use of texts, emails, interest based online advertising, recurring billing or similar marketing and sales activities; the amount of our indebtedness and ability to comply with covenants applicable to any future debt financing; our ability to satisfy future capital and liquidity requirements; our ability to access the credit and capital markets at the times and in the amounts needed and on acceptable terms; adverse results from litigation, governmental investigations, tax-related proceedings, or audits; changes in accounting standards; and the other risks and uncertainties detailed in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I - Item 1A in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended April 27, 2019. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those described as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned. Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this press release.
