Board of Directors

Meet the HMH Board of Directors, dedicated members who carry a passion for education and inspiring curiosity.

Lawrence K. Fish

Director and Chairman of the Board

Lawrence K. Fish has served as a member of the board of directors since August 2010 and Chairman of the Board since January 2011. Mr. Fish served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (“Citizens”) from 2005 to 2008 and as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Citizens from 1992 to 2005. Mr. Fish is a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation (the institute’s board of trustees) and serves on the boards of directors of Textron Inc. and Tiffany & Co. He is also an Honorary Trustee of the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. and Chairman of the Board of Management Sciences for Health and a Trustee of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Mr. Fish’s extensive experience in the areas of finance, marketing, general management and corporate governance enables him to provide the Company with effective leadership on the Board.

Daniel Allen

Director

Daniel Allen has served as a member of the board of directors since December 2016. Mr. Allen is a Partner at Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. and serves as President and Senior Portfolio Manager for the firm. In this capacity, he has responsibility for overseeing the firm’s portfolio management, risk management, and investment decisions. Prior to joining Anchorage, Mr. Allen spent the previous six years with Morgan Stanley, and in his most recent role, was responsible for North American Credit Trading with a primary focus on bank debt, high yield bonds and distressed securities. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Allen was a Loan Trader at Goldman Sachs. He is also on the Board of Trustees of Skidmore College. Mr. Allen’s extensive experience in financial services as a trader and portfolio manager and his extensive knowledge of the capital markets and the financial services industry enables him to provide the Company with valuable guidance.

L. Gordon Crovitz

Director

L. Gordon Crovitz has served as a member of the Board since August 2012 and served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer from September 2016 to April 2017.  From 1980-2007, Mr. Crovitz held a number of positions with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, culminating in his role as Executive Vice President for Dow Jones and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He co-founded e-commerce software company Press+ in 2009 and is currently a partner at NextNews Ventures, a partnership investing in early-stage news companies. Mr. Crovitz serves on the Board of Directors at Business Insider, Blurb, Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. and Marin Software Incorporated. He is also on the board of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars. Mr. Crovitz’s management roles in the publishing industry and extensive experience as a director enable him to provide the Company with valuable guidance.

Jill A. Greenthal

Director and Chair of Nominating, Ethics, and Governance Committee

Jill A. Greenthal has served as a member of the board of directors since June 2012. Ms. Greenthal has been a Senior Advisor in Private Equity at the Blackstone Group since 2007, working closely with Blackstone’s global media and technology teams to assist in investments in those sectors. She also serves as a director of Akamai Technologies, Inc., TEGNA Inc. and The Weather Channel and previously served as a director of Orbitz Worldwide from 2007 to 2013 and Michaels Stores from 2011 to 2015. Prior to 2007, Ms. Greenthal was an investment banker and partner at Blackstone and Credit Suisse First Boston. Ms. Greenthal is also a trustee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, The James Beard Foundation and Simmons College and is an Overseer of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Greenthal has extensive experience in the media and Internet industry and in advising and financing Internet and media companies, which enables her to provide valuable guidance to the Company.

John F. Killian

Director and Chair of Audit Committee

John F. Killian has served as a member of the board of directors since January 2011. Mr. Killian was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Verizon Communications Inc. (“Verizon”) from March 2009 through October 2010. Prior to becoming Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Killian was President of Verizon Business from October 2005 until March 2009, the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Verizon Telecom from June 2003 until October 2005, and the Senior Vice President and Controller of Verizon Telecom from April 2002 until June 2003. Mr. Killian serves on the board of directors at ConEdison Inc. and is Chairman of the board of Providence College. He is also a Trustee of Goldman Sachs Trust II, an open-end management investment company. Mr. Killian brings extensive financial expertise to the Board, as well as significant management and leadership experience.

John "Jack" J. Lynch, Jr.

Director and President, Chief Executive Officer

John "Jack" J. Lynch, Jr. joined HMH in 2017 as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director, bringing with him extensive background in the K-12 education and technology space. Prior to HMH, Mr. Lynch was the CEO at Renaissance Learning, a leader in K-12 learning analytics, owned by Hellman & Friedman and Google Capital. With over 25 years of management experience in the software and information industry, Mr. Lynch is highly respected in the field of education technology. He has been active in the K-12 education industry since 1999 and was the founding CEO of bigchalk.com, where he created an education network serving 40,000 schools. He was later president and CEO of the Pearson Technology Group. Prior to joining Renaissance Learning, Mr. Lynch was a member of the executive board of Wolters Kluwer. Mr. Lynch holds a bachelor of arts from Boston University and was honored with the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for his leadership.

John R. McKernan, Jr.

Director and Chair of Compensation Committee

John R. McKernan, Jr. served as a member of the board of directors from August 2010 through June 2012 and rejoined the board in September 2012. Mr. McKernan is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McKernan Enterprises, Inc., in Portland, Maine and a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he also served as its Foundation President from October 2013 to February 2015. He is also currently a director of BorgWarner Inc. and Management and Training Corporation. Mr. McKernan is the former Chairman of Education Management Corporation, a provider of post-secondary education in North America, where he served as Chief Executive Officer from September 2003 until February 2007 and as a director until 2015. Mr. McKernan is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges, a director of The American Action Forum and Achieve and served as Governor of the State of Maine from 1987 to 1995. Mr. McKernan brings to the Board superior leadership capabilities, knowledge of the legal and legislative processes and significant prior experience as a director.

E. Rogers Novak, Jr.

Director

E. Rogers Novak, Jr. has served as a member of the board of directors since November 2012. He is a founder and managing member of Novak Biddle Venture Partners, an early-stage venture fund focused on investment opportunities in education, security, big data analytics and business-to-business-to-consumer businesses. Mr. Novak formerly served as Lead Director of Blackboard Inc., which was acquired by Providence Equity Partners. Mr. Novak currently serves on several private company boards and was a member of the External Relations Council for the Department of Homeland Security’s “Predict” Project. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for Kenyon College where he sits on the Budget, Financial and Audit Committee and the Student Affairs Committee. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. Novak held a seat on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association and was their Treasurer and a member of their Executive Committee from 2009 to 2011. Mr. Novak’s significant prior experience as a director, especially in the education technology sector, renders him a valuable member of the Board.

Tracey D. Weber

Director

Tracey D. Weber has served as a member of the board of directors since July 2016. She is the Chief Client Officer and Vice President of Transformation for IBM’s Watson Customer Engagement business unit. Until April of 2016, Ms. Weber was a Strategic Advisor for innovative online shopping destination Gilt Groupe, where she formerly served as President from February 2015 to February 2016 and Chief Operating Officer from September 2013 to February 2015. She served as Managing Director, North America Internet and Mobile and Global Product at Citibank, NA, a multinational financial services corporation, from 2010 to 2013. Ms. Weber has also previously served as Executive Vice President of Barnes & Noble, Inc.’s textbooks and digital education division and has held several leadership positions at Travelocity.com. From July 2013 to March 2016, she served on the board of International Game Technology. Ms. Weber’s leadership roles across a variety of consumer industries and extensive digital operations experience enables her to provide the Company with valuable guidance.