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Nelson Education, Ltd. Announces New Board Members
[October 21, 2015]

Nelson Education, Ltd. Announces New Board Members


Nelson Education Ltd., Canada's largest educational publisher, announces the appointment of its full slate of Board Directors, following the sale of the Company to financial investors, effective October 1st, 2015.

Joining Greg Nordal, the Company CEO, on the Nelson Board, are Atish Banerjea, John Brecker, David Kirsch, Giacomo Picco, and David Sachs.

"We are pleased to announce Nelson's new Board of Directors, who collectively bring diverse skill sets, and a clear understanding our strategic direction as we focus on enhancing shareholder value. As experienced and accomplished individuals we look forward to their contributions to our long term success," said Greg Nordal, CEO of Nelson.

Mr. Nordal continued, "Nelson is very well positioned to build on our market-leading presence in Canada as we continue with our mission of enabling the success of students and educators through the provision of innovative learning tools - in both digital and print formats- to assist learners of all ages."

The Board Members are listed below.

Greg Nordal, President & Chief Executive Officer
Greg Nordal joined Nelson Education, as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, in September of 2008.

Immediately prior to joining Nelson Education, Mr. Nordal was President of Sodexo Canada, a leading provider of outsourced facilities and food management expertise, employing over 10,000 associates nationally. For many years previous to that experience, Mr. Nordal served as a senior executive for Dun & Bradstreet (News - Alert) Corporation (D&B). He enjoyed a progressive series of assignments with that corporation, including consecutive roles as President of D&B Canada, D&B Europe, and ultimately D&B International (based out of High Wycombe, United Kingdom), with responsibility for all global businesses excluding the United States. During his tenure with D&B, Mr. Nordal provided leadership to that organization's migration from print-based information products to web solutions that helped establish the company as the one of the globe's premier providers of online business information.

At the Board level Mr. Nordal is currently a Director of Urthecast Corporation, a publicly traded company (TSX symbol: UR) based in Vancouver, Canada; and in the non-profit sector he is a Director, and former Chair of the Board of Second Harvest, one of Canada's largest hunger relief agencies.

Atish Banerjea
Mr. Banerjea serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at NBCUniversal, where he is responsible for global technology strategy, applications, infrastructure and operations for the company's worldwide media portfolio. Prior to NBCUniversal, Mr. Banerjea served as Chief Technology Officer for Dex One Corporation, where he led a major redesign of that company's IT functions, and helped transorm Dex One from a print-centric business to a digital media marketing company. Prior to joining Dex One, Mr. Banerjea served as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Pearson, where he was responsible for the global planning, deployment and management of more than $550-million in information technology investment. He has also held roles at Maurices, Inc and Simon & Schuster. Mr. Banerjea holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from Temple University, and a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Delhi.



David Kirsch - Lead Director
David is a Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Mudrick Capital Management, LP. Prior to joining Mudrick Capital Management, LP, David was a Senior Analyst and Managing Director at Miura Global Management, a multi-billion dollar global long-short equity hedge fund from 2008 to 2010 where he was responsible for coverage of the financial and consumer industries across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Prior to Miura, David served as a Director at Alvarez & Marsal from 2003-2008. At Alvarez & Marsal, he held primary or lead management roles on an interim basis for companies and advised creditors on balance sheet solutions to maximize the value of their investments. David received his B.S. Magna Cum Laude in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

John Brecker
Mr. John Raymond Brecker, J.D., serves as a Partner at Drivetrain Advisors. Prior to Drivetrain, Mr. Brecker co-founded Longacre Fund Management LLC, a hedge fund sponsor that was started in 1996 and grew to $2.7bln of assets before it was partially sold to Goldman Sachs. Prior to founding Longacre, Mr. Brecker was Head Trade Claims and Trade Receivables trader at Bear Stearns, which he joined in 1996. He also worked as an Associate/Corporate Lawyer in the Bankruptcy Department of Pryor Cashman from 1991 to 1994, and as an Associate in the Bankruptcy Department of Angel & Frankel from 1988 to 1991. Mr. Brecker has been a Director of BV-BC Acquisition Corp., Corecomm-ATX, Inc., Broadview Networks (News - Alert), Inc. He has been a Director at Dune Energy Inc., since March 28, 2013 and Catalyst Paper Corporation since September 13, 2012. He has been an Independent Director at Morgans Hotel Group Co. since May 2014. He serves as a Director of Open Support Systems LLC, Nex-I.Com Inc., Eureka Networks, LLC, Infohighway of Virginia, Inc., Eureka Holdings, LLC, Eureka Telecom, Inc., Info-Highway International, Inc., Eureka Telecom of VA, Inc., TRUCOM Corporation, Bridgecom Solutions Group, Inc., ATX Telecommunication Services of Virginia, LLC, BridgeCom Holdings Inc., Corecomm Communications Inc., and Eureka Broadband Corporation. Mr. Brecker received BA in Political Science from American University in 1985, and JD from St. John's University School of Law in 1988.


Giacomo Picco
Mr. Picco serves as a Partner and Senior Analyst at Sound Point Capital Management, LP, a $7.5 billion asset manager. He serves on the Investment Committee for the Sound Point Beacon Fund and Sound Point Credit Opportunities Fund. Prior to joining Sound Point, Mr. Picco was a Senior Analyst and Partner at KS Management Corp. Prior to becoming a Partner, Mr. Picco served as Co-Head of Research. Prior to KS Management Corp., Mr. Picco was an Associate at The Carlyle Group, where he worked on leveraged buyout transactions. Prior to Carlyle, he worked at Lazard Freres as a banker in their mergers and acquisitions group. Mr. Picco serves on the Board of Directors of Euramax Holdings, Inc. He also serves as a Director at the EB Research Partnership. He holds an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School and a B.A. degree from Columbia University.

David Sachs
Mr. Sachs is a Partner in the Ares Corporate Strategy Group, where he focuses on the Tradable Credit Group's publicly traded funds, strategic growth opportunities for Ares and facilitating the sharing of credit knowledge across the Ares platform. He serves as a Director and Chairman of the Board of Ares Dynamic Credit Allocation Fund, Inc. ("ARDC"), a NYSE-listed, closed end fund managed by an affiliate of Ares. Additionally, Mr. Sachs serves as a member of Ares Direct Lending, Tradable Credit and Private Equity Group fund investment committees, as well as the Ares Real Estate Group's Real Estate Debt Investment Committee. Prior to joining Ares in 1997, Mr. Sachs was a Principal of Onyx Partners, Inc., where he focused on merchant banking and related capital raising activities in the private equity and mezzanine debt markets. Previously, he also worked with Taylor & Co., an investment manager providing investment advisory and consulting services to members of the Bass Family of Fort Worth, Texas, and Columbia Savings and Loan Association as Executive Vice President, where he was responsible for asset-liability management and running the investment management department. Mr. Sachs serves as the Lead Director of Terex Corporation and is on the Board of Trustees and the McCormick Advisory Council at Northwestern University. He holds a B.S. from Northwestern University in Industrial Engineering and Management Science.


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