New York, N.Y., October 6, 2008 &emdash; Merger and acquisition advisory firm Whitestone Communications has appointed publishing industry veteran Richard Casabonne to the position of Senior Advisor, Whitestone announced today.
"Richard"s extensive contacts in the publishing field combined with his in-depth acquisitions experience will help Whitestone extend its relationships while improving its client service," Whitestone President Baran Rosen said. "Given Richard"s particularly strong involvement in educational businesses, we see him helping to bring greater focus and results to our representation work in this area through his advisory role."
"I see this new position as a way to combine my greatest business interests-educational publishing and acquisitions," Richard Casabonne said. "I have gotten to know Whitestone over the last several years and respect their professional approach to working with clients. We already have some transactions in the pipeline and I see our respective strengths as very synergistic."
Richard Casabonne has spent his entire career in education and trade publishing and is now CEO of Casabonne Associates Inc. Previously, he was Principal and Senior Consultant at MarketingWorks, a full service consulting firm, where he headed up research activities and strategic planning for many different educational publishing houses, distributors, and non-profits providing services to education.
Prior to his appointment at MarketingWorks, Casabonne was President, Educational and Training Group, LeapFrog Enterprises where his responsibilities included leveraging the highly acclaimed LeapFrog platforms into education.
Before LeapFrog, he served as Senior Vice President of Planning and Business Development for Harcourt, Inc, an educational publishing company comprised of over 20 divisions that covered a range of educational needs. While at Harcourt, he was active in acquiring the NEC Companies, which included Steck Vaughn, a leading publisher of supplementary education materials for kindergarten through adult education, where he served as President and CEO.
Earlier, Casabonne held senior management positions at Grolier, Inc., McGraw-Hill Educational Resources, Random House School Division, and consulted with myriad educational and trade publishers. He also consulted for Apple Computer's education initiatives for eight years.
He serves on numerous boards for both companies and institutions. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and a master of education degree in instructional technology from Boston University.
Whitestone Communications, Inc.
1350 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 1200
New York, NY 10019
212 957-7100
Contact: Baran Rosen, Ext. 266
