Tony Lucki, president and chief executive of Reed’s Harcourt Education division, is now working out the terms of his contract.
Harcourt Education is the third-largest textbook publishing company in America. Lucki has been with the company since 1990.
The Anglo-Dutch media group acquired the business as part of its £3.1 billion purchase of the Harcourt group in 2001. Earlier this year Reed appointed Pat Tierney, former head of Thomson Financial, to be global chief executive of its educational businesses.
Lucki is believed to have seen the appointment as a signal that a limit had been placed on his promotion within the company. Lucki’s wife Donna, a senior vice-president at Harcourt Education, may also move to Houghton. Last summer Houghton was sold by Vivendi to venture capitalists led by Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee.
In a memo to staff, Tierney, who is based in New York, said: “The timing and terms of (Lucki’s) resignation remain to be resolved between Harcourt and Tony, and are currently under discussion.
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“Meanwhile, I recognise the marketplace environment remains challenging, but believe we can all be proud of the strong progress we are making. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you to maintain this positive momentum.”
Tierney is now taking over Lucki’s responsibilities and has moved into an office at the division’s headquarters in Orlando, Florida.
The group releases its interim results this week and will update the market on its education business. Pearson, America’s biggest educational publisher, released its results last week and said state budget pressures were affecting school revenues.
Reed recently lost out on a $50m (£31m) contract for California’s schools that it once shared with Pearson. Pearson now shares the contract with ETS, a non-profit organisation.
A Reed spokeswoman said: “Tony Lucki has made a big contribution. But we have a strong team in place and a first-class chief executive overseeing the business.”
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This is the second high-profile departure from Reed in recent months, although the company points out that in the previous four years senior management had been very stable.
Derk Haank, head of scientific publishing, left Reed in June to take up a role in a rival firm in the private sector. He had spent 17 years with the company.
Ahead of Reed’s interim results, analysts are predicting double-digit earnings growth. They also expect Reed to say that the business-to-business side is recovering.
As with other education firms, Reed’s revenues are heavily weighted towards the second half of the year, with much of its cash coming in December.
The company, which had been flagging badly, has been turned round under the guidance of chief executive Crispin Davis, who joined in 1999. He has bucked the trend of poorly performing media companies and has consistently produced solid growth.