Hans ***** is President & CEO of ***** AB Group, the global $200m revenue PR software and media intelligence services group listed at the Stockholm Nordic exchange.

He’s the former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Houghton Mifflin Company, a $1.3 billion publishing company in Boston. He also is non-executive director / advisor / angel investor for a number of other private held internet companies, including***** which he co-founded in 2004.

He joined Houghton Mifflin in June 2002 to lead the Company through the $1.6 billion divestment process for then parent Vivendi-Universal. The transfer of the Company to new owners (private equity consortium of Th. Lee, Bain Capital and Blackstone) was completed in December 2002. After leading the successful road show ($1 billion raised) to finance this buy-out, Hans left the Company in July 2003. During the turbulent divestment process, Hans directed the company to gain market share against all principal competitors and to improve operating efficiency.

In 2000, Hans was recruited to become President of***** in order to bring process and structure to world’s largest recruitment portal. During his tenure, he led annual revenue growth from $100 million in 1999 to $350 million in 2001. He created a product development road map to prioritize effective use of working capital, and played a crucial role in driving rapid but well planned international expansion. By 2001,***** had established itself as European market leader as well.

From 1979 to 2000, Hans had a distinguished career with the global Reed-Elsevier publishing group (2007 revenues $10 billion, pre-tax profit $2.4 billion) culminating in his appointment as President and CEO of the $1.3 billion LexisNexis Group in 1997, at age 43. LexisNexis provides access to 40,000 legal and business information databases. Hans led the company through a complete proprietary-to-internet technology transformation, while rapidly expanding into the small law firm market, into European markets and regaining preference leadership among US law school students.

Other key Reed-Elsevier assignments during his twenty-one years with the company included:
• Senior Vice President, Global Sales for Elsevier Science Publishers
• Chief Executive Officer, Elsevier Science Publishers UK, based in London
• Chief Executive Officer of the Dutch consumer and business magazine division
• Deputy Chairman of the legal publishing division (19 companies in 15 countries)

Hans began his international career in 1976 as an International Sales Representative for Princeton and Columbia University Press, covering all of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The common theme for all these assignments was the need for urgent “change-management”, whether it concerned technology, major product re-launches, major outsourcing or major M&A activities. Hans successfully managed some dozen acquisitions both in Europe and USA. The largest of these was the $1.6 billion acquisition of legal publisher Matthew Bender in 1998.

Hans has been an active user of the Internet and its precursors since the mid-eighties. He has lived on both sides of the Atlantic and has extensive and successful experience in dealing with Trans-Atlantic organizations and the cross-culture issues of these international companies.

Hans received a BS from the Netherlands Institute of Marketing in Amsterdam.

He also is non-executive director / advisor / angel investor for a number of other private held internet companies, including***** which he co-founded in 2004.

Hans is also Honorary Consul for The Netherlands in New England