Business News
Xplana Announces Expansion of Management Team
Wednesday 12. March 2008 - Two Executive Vice Presidents Bring Vast Educational Publishing Experience to Help Drive Xplana's Growth Strategies & Development of Innovative Customer Solutions
Xplana, Inc., a leading provider of interactive educational software and publishing services, announced today that George Hoffman and Lise’ Johnson, executives with more than 40 years of combined editorial, sales and marketing experience in the educational publishing industry, have joined the company as Executive Vice Presidents. As Xplana’s clients and partners look to customize their educational publishing efforts to meet the divergent demands of technology-minded educators, students and instructors, Mr. Hoffman and Ms. Johnson will help to lead the company’s efforts to develop innovative educational and technology models and programs for the industry.
“Educational publishing is a rapidly expanding and highly dynamic marketplace; George and Lise’ bring critical experience and a track record of proven success to our leadership team as we further expand the educational technology products and services that Xplana provides to our core customers of publishers, instructors, and students,” said Hakan Satiroglu, CEO of Xplana. “They will help us to focus not only on the ever-changing needs of our customers who are redefining the types of products and services we offer, but also on our ongoing efforts to maintain our position as a pioneer and industry thought-leader.”
George Hoffman comes to Xplana with 20 years of successful sales and editorial experience in the educational publishing industry. Mr. Hoffman was most recently Vice President, Executive Publisher at Houghton Mifflin Company where he managed a team of publishers and acquisitions editors in the Business, Mathematics, Science, and Psychology disciplines. Mr. Hoffman began his career at McGraw-Hill, Inc. as a sales representative and then acquisitions editor before spending the past 12 and a half years in editorial management positions at Houghton Mifflin. Some of his achievements at Houghton Mifflin include being awarded Publisher of the Year in 2007 for growing the B&E and Hardside businesses by 15% to $125m in revenue, Editor of the Year for a Revision, Notable Signing of a Houghton Mifflin Author, Notable Signing of a New Author, and twice receiving the Editorial Achievement Award for Outstanding Overall Signing. He was appointed to Houghton Mifflin’s Corporate High Potential Leadership Program, and was a member of the College Division Partnership Council and College Division Management Committee.
Lise’ Johnson joins Xplana with over 20 years of experience and high performance in the educational publishing industry. Ms. Johnson was most recently the Executive Editor for Business at Houghton Mifflin where she managed a team of editors and acquired new authors/products. Prior to this, she was the Vice President, Director of Educational Marketing for Cengage (formerly Thomson Learning), where she managed the marketing teams over the College and School publishing divisions. Before that, Ms. Johnson was the Vice President, Director of Marketing for Harcourt College Publishers. Over her publishing tenure she has held positions in sales, marketing and editorial, has received numerous corporate awards for her outstanding performances and achievements such as the Circle of Excellence Award, the Outstanding New Product Model Award, the Outstanding Overall Signing Award of the Year, the Best New Author Signing Award of the Year, the Marketing Team of the Year Award, and the Marketing Manager of the Year Award.