🎧 Listen: In today's episode of The Journal podcast, shalini details the drama surrounding the controversial succession plan willed by the CEO of century-old book publisher Scholastic when he died suddenly this year
Scholastic, which is famous for children's books like Harry Potter and Clifford the Big Red Dog, has been controlled by the same family for more than a century. Then, the CEO unexpectedly died in June and his will had a controversial decision on succession. WSJ's Shalini Ramachandran on the drama that unfolded.This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Shalini Ramachandran: Everyone was completely shocked. I mean, I remember hearing the words, "I'm dumbfounded. I'm in disbelief." One former staffer said, "I can't even breathe right now." Shalini Ramachandran: Scholastic was started by Dick Robinson's father, Maurice Robinson, and he was known as Robbie to his staffers. And it was started in 1920 when he started publishing a magazine called the Western Pennsylvania Scholastic. It was a classroom magazine business. It covered a variety of topics. And teachers and school administrators ordered these classroom magazines.
Shalini Ramachandran: Whenever you talk to Scholastic staffers, they'll talk to you about the mission. It's all about the mission, which is literacy education. Those were sort of the North Stars for the company and that's how the family considered it. Ryan Knutson: Even though Scholastic's revenue has been flat, it could have been acquired by a bigger company given all its intellectual property, but Robinson never wanted to sell.
Ryan Knutson: And so when he died, what happened? People just didn't know who was going to take over the company? Ryan Knutson: Iole Lucchese was not just a partner and a friend, she was also the company's chief strategy officer Robinson's will gave her the power to vote his class A shares. And she became executive chair of the board all of which has meant that for the first time in Scholastic's century-long history someone outside of the Robinson family would now be in charge of its fate.
Ryan Knutson: In 2014, Lucchese was named Scholastic's chief strategy officer. Two years later, she was appointed executive vice president of Scholastic. And by 2018, she also became president of Scholastic Entertainment, which licenses Scholastic stories for movies and TV shows. Shalini Ramachandran: So his family was completely stunned. Someone described it as unexpected and shocking. One of his sons described it as salt in an open wound. Ms. Behnam told us in an email that Dick was spending all of his time with the family. And she said, "Not only weekends, but regular nights with us in Manhattan he was coming back to the family."Shalini Ramachandran: And so it was a huge, huge shock to his sons and his ex-wife.
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