John Wiley and Sons Inc. has named Ella Balagula its new executive vice president of the company’s publishing segment.
The Hoboken-based company focuses on global research and learning.
Balagula was senior vice president and general manager of Engineering Solutions at Elsevier, one of the world’s largest providers of scientific, medical and technology information. While there, she was responsible for commercial go-to-market, product management, software development and content acquisition and production in the engineering and academic segments.
She also was CEO of Knovel, Elsevier’s decision-support solution that enables corporate engineers and engineering students to confidently answer technical questions, drawing upon trusted data from more than 130 providers through a cloud-based platform with powerful search and interactive analytical tools.
“Ella Balagula is precisely the kind of world-class change leader we need to optimize our unique and valuable publishing assets — including our STM, professional and education book content, brands, franchise authors, customers and partnerships,” said Chairman and interim CEO Matthew Kissner. “Time and again, Ella has proven herself in the development of successful new business models, redesign of product platforms, transformation of product development mindsets and procedures, build-out of innovative partnerships and the realization of meaningful revenue and profitability growth.”
Balagula also was a principal for A.T. Kearney in its Pharma and Healthcare Division, where she led teams that managed large strategic and operational projects for global Fortune 500 clients.
Those projects included corporate growth strategy, channel optimization and organizational design.
Her previous employment includes Citibank and Towers Perrin.
She has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and an M.S. in Mathematics from Odessa National University in the Ukraine.
“Wiley is one of the largest, most respected and most enduring publishers in the world, and I am honored by the opportunity,” Balagula said. “I am coming to an organization with an exceptional foundation — terrific assets, strong partnerships and talented employees. I look forward to working with the team to build on that foundation and create something truly special.”
