Britain plc appoints its first woman at the top

Choice of new Pearson chief raises corporate eyebrows

Corporate Britain's first top woman chief executive, the American-born Marjorie Scardino, is to take up the senior post at Pearson, the media conglomerate, at the end of the year.

The move marks the most dramatic breach of the infamous "glass ceiling" in memory - she becomes the first female chief executive of a FTSE 100 company - and will be cheered by scores of senior woman executives who remain stuck a few levels below the chief executive's suite.

Ms Scardino, chief executive of the Economist, has kept a low profile - "low as to be nearly non-existent" she confirmed - except as the mother of the Hollywood child star Hal Scardino, who took the limelight in the children's film The Indian in the Cupboard.

Yesterday's announcement surprised media analysts in the City, where Pearson, owners of Thames Television, the Financial Times, Madame Tussaud's, Penguin Books and other leading media and entertainment companies, is still seen by many as conservative, blue-blooded and slow-moving.

"If you had asked five years ago whether Pearson would have a woman chief executive, the answer would have been 'no way'," a Pearson director conceded yesterday. "That shows you how much the company has changed."

There was also grumbling that Ms Scardino did not have the experience or the authority to run a pounds 4bn company, particularly one that has been accused of being unfocused and under-managed. Disappointment with the news helped to send Pearson shares sharply lower yesterday.

But such views were quickly dismissed by the outgoing managing director, Frank Barlow, who steps down at the end of the year. "The City don't know her, so they will be unsure at first," he said. "They'll learn that she is extremely shrewd, and she is deceptively clever, with a nice informal manner. Above all, she is a good motivator, and she's fun."

Flashes of her independent character were obvious yesterday when she was asked how British businesses differed from American ones. She confessed to finding a lack of "urgency" in British corporate circles, as well as an aversion to risk.

"I grew up believing that doing things to the best of your ability wasn't enough. Sometimes you had to do what was necessary."

On whether she was up to the job, she said: "The Economist is much like Pearson: they are both media companies, with increasing electronic publishing interests. I know it will be a challenge, but it is one I will enjoy."

Dennis Stevenson, the well-known "corporate doctor" and chairman of the Tate Gallery, is to become deputy chairman of Pearson, rising to chairman next year, when Michael Blakenham, the last of the controlling Cowdray family to serve as a Pearson executive, steps down.

Mr Stevenson, who has been a Pearson board member for several years, said of the appointment: "She was the first person we asked. Gender was simply not an issue."

No other top-100 company has a female chief executive, although one, Michael Green's Carlton Communications, has a woman managing director, June de Moller.

Ms Scardino is a lawyer by training, but also has a background in journalism. In the US, she and her husband, a freelance journalist, founded and ran the Georgia Gazette, a small newspaper. With their three children they moved to Britain four years ago, when Ms Scardino, 49, was promoted to the top corporate job at the Economist. Widely liked by staff and colleagues, she is credited with developing its businesses in North America.

She will face a tough challenge at Pearson, which has been under fire in the City for its costly plunge into the CD-Rom and game-cartridge market in the US, and its "grab-bag" of businesses.

Pearson's strategy, page 22