Yesterday a news broke out which was about Carol Bratz being dismissed by Yahoo and now Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Public Sector, Linda Zecher, is moving out of Microsoft to take up the position of CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The announcement actually went public on 6th September that Zecher would not only be the CEO, but even the Director at HMH. At the Microsoft office, the announcement of Zecher’s departure was only made for the internal team.
There was even a confirmation from a Microsoft spokesperson who noted that Zecher would be in Microsoft’s office till 15th September and the company is looking out for a replacement too for Zecher. The spokesperson even said that till the replacement is finalized, Anthony Salcito, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector Education, will lead Worldwide Public Sector. It is quite interesting to note that Salcito, who is the temporary leader decided upon as of now, is on the board of Zecher’s new employer, Houghton Mifflin.
Zecher has been carrying an experience of almost 25 years which has been dedicated for the field of public sector markets and technology. At Microsoft, she has served as a Corporate Vice President as she was heading Microsoft’s $8 billion Worldwide Public Sector business. As a leader, she has been leading a global team of almost 2,000 professionals which has been from over 100 countries. The main purpose she was serving was to provide innovative technology and programs to customer organizations in the education, government, and healthcare sectors.
Chairman of the Board, Lawrence K. Fish said, “The board sought a CEO with proven executive experience, the ability to deliver financial results, and a deep familiarity with the technology and education space. Linda is the perfect fit.”
As far as Zecher is concerned, she wasn’t just happy, but even proud to be a part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as President and CEO. She further said, “I have a passion for education and have worked in the space from a technology perspective throughout my career. I look forward to combining HMH’s rich content and leadership position in the market with technology innovations in education to advance teacher and classroom capabilities around the globe.”
For her background, before being a part of Microsoft in 2003, Zecher had taken up various roles and have worked in the leadership of many technology market leaders. She was even the ninth employee of PeopleSoft and surprisingly she joined in to directly take up the role of Vice President of Sales and Marketing. She was successful in this role as the company saw revenues growing significantly and it resulted in a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO). Later on, she moved on to join Oracle and here her post was of a Senior Vice President. Her responsibility in Oracle was for Oracle’s Application Suite in Public Sector, Higher Education, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Financial Services and Utilities markets. Post-Oracle, she was even named as the CEO of Evolve Corp., a publicly traded company, where she continued to manage things successfully.
For Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Boston headquarters, Zecher joins in on 19th September, while the company’s current Interim CEO, Michael Muldowney, will resume his duties, but the post alloted to him is not of a CFO.