Skillsoft (SKIL) Appoints Richard Walker as CFO

Skillsoft Corp. (NYSE: SKIL) today announced that it has appointed Richard Walker, Skillsoft’s current Chief Corporate Strategy and Development Officer, as Chief Financial Officer, effective October 28, 2022. Gary Ferrera, Skillsoft’s current CFO, is stepping down to pursue personal interests and will remain with the Company through December 2022 to ensure a smooth transition. Following the transition, Mr. Walker will maintain his corporate strategy and development responsibilities, thereby streamlining the Company’s executive leadership team and creating a more focused organizational structure.

Mr. Walker brings extensive strategic and financial leadership experience to the CFO role, having previously served as Chief Financial Officer of IHS, a leading information services and analytics provider (subsequently IHS Markit and acquired by S&P Global in 2022), and more recently as Chief Financial Officer of ServiceSource, a global market leader in B2B digital sales. Since joining Skillsoft in 2021, he led the SumTotal business as its president until its sale to Cornerstone in August 2022.

“Rich has been a strategic business partner in returning Skillsoft to public markets, repositioning our product portfolio for long-term growth and leading our divestiture of SumTotal,” said Jeffrey Tarr, Chief Executive Officer of Skillsoft. “Rich not only has significant financial leadership experience as a two-time public company CFO, but he also has deep insight into Skillsoft’s strategic priorities and operations. As we move forward focused on preparing the workforce of today with the skills of tomorrow, I am confident that a streamlined executive leadership team will enable us to more efficiently drive profitable growth and create value for our shareholders, customers, team members and other stakeholders.”

Mr. Walker said, “I am excited to be named Skillsoft’s next CFO and look forward to continuing to work closely with Jeff in my new role as we deliver transformative learning experiences to customers. With a strong balance sheet and cash flow, world-class content, platform and go-to-market organization and exceptional leadership team, Skillsoft is well-positioned to continue driving subscription revenue growth, enhance profitability and execute on our long-term strategy.”

Mr. Ferrera said, “I have every confidence that the strong finance function we have built will be in excellent hands with Rich. I look forward to pursuing personal interests and spending more time with my family before embarking on my next chapter and, along the way, I’ll be cheering on Skillsoft’s every success.”

Mr. Tarr added, “Gary has been instrumental in building a strong finance organization. I am grateful for his significant contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Skillsoft also today reaffirmed its full year fiscal 2023 outlook, originally provided on September 7, 2022 and noted that its CFO transition is unrelated to the Company’s financial results, operational performance, financial reporting or accounting practices.

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