Dame Marjorie Scardino, ,

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

( Morris; born 25 January 1947) is an American-born British business executive. She is the former CEO of Pearson PLC. Scardino became a trustee of Oxfam during her tenure at Pearson. She was criticized by ''Private Eye'' magazine because, while Oxfam campaigns against corporate

tax avoidance Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdi ...

as part of the IF Coalition, Pearson was "a prolific tax haven user ... routing hundreds of millions of pounds through an elaborate series of Luxembourg companies (and a Luxembourg branch of a UK company) to avoid tax". She became the first female Chief Executive of a

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

company when she was appointed CEO of Pearson in 1997. She is also a non-executive director of

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

and former CEO of the

Economist Group The Economist Group (legally The Economist Newspaper Limited) is a media company headquartered in London, England. It is best known as publisher of ''The Economist'' newspaper and its sister lifestyle magazine, '' 1843''. The Economist Group spe ...

. During her time at Pearson, Pearson's profits tripled, to a record £942m. In December 2013, she joined the board of

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

as its first female director, after a controversy involving a lack of diversity on the Twitter board.

Early life and education

Scardino was born in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1947, and grew up in

Texarkana, Texas Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States, in the Ark-La-Tex region. Located approximately from Dallas, Texarkana is a twin city with neighboring Texarkana, Arkansas. The Texas city's population was 36,193 at the 2020 census. ...

. While living in Texas she participated in rodeo riding as a teenager. Scardino is a graduate of

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...

with a B..A in French and psychology in 1969. She began law school at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...

but dropped out to become a journalist at Associated Press in Charleston, West Virginia, and later obtained her J.D. degree from the

University of San Francisco School of Law The University of San Francisco School of Law (USF Law) is the law school of the private University of San Francisco. Established in 1912, it received American Bar Association accreditation in 1935 and joined the Association of American Law Sc ...

Career

Before 1985, Scardino was the publisher of ''

The Georgia Gazette ''The Georgia Gazette'' was a weekly alternative newspaper in Savannah, Georgia that took its name from Georgia's first newspaper, also founded in Savannah in 1763. Its owners and publishers were Marjorie Scardino and Albert Scardino. It was awa ...

''. She is the board chair of the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

and a board member of the

Carter Center The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He and his wife Rosalynn Carter partnered with Emory University just after his defeat in the 1980 United States presid ...

. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She also won the 2002 Benjamin Franklin Medal. In 2007, she was listed 17th on the ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' list of the 100 most powerful women in the World. On October 3, 2012, it was announced that she will step down as CEO of Pearson to be replaced by John Fallon. In December 2013, she joined the board of

as its first female director, after a controversy involving a lack of diversity on the Twitter board.

Personal life

Scardino is married to

Albert Scardino Albert Scardino is an American journalist and former publisher of ''The Georgia Gazette'' who is known for winning the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1984. Early life and education Scardino was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up ...

, whom she worked with during her time at ''The Georgia Gazette'' and later a media reporter for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. She has three children, Adelaide, Will and Hal (producer and former child actor). Although she was born in the United States, she has taken British citizenship.

Awards and honors

Marjorie Scardino received an Honorary Doctorate from

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June ...

in 1999 for her role as CEO of Pearson plc. Scardino received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2001 Scardino’s contributions to the British media were recognized when she was named

Dame Commander Commander ( it, Commendatore; french: Commandeur; german: Komtur; es, Comendador; pt, Comendador), or Knight Commander, is a title of honor prevalent in chivalric orders and fraternal orders. The title of Commander occurred in the medieval mil ...

of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(DBE) in February 2002, one month after she had adopted British citizenship. In 2014, Scardino received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Roehampton.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scardino, Marjorie 1947 births Living people American emigrants to England Atlantic Council Baylor University alumni Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire University of San Francisco alumni Nokia people Women chief executives Directors of Twitter, Inc.