John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE:WLY) Q2 2024 Results Conference Call December 6, 2023 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Brian Campbell - Vice President of Investor Relations

Matt Kissner - Interim President and CEO

Christina Van Tassell - EVP and CFO

Jay Flynn - EVP and General Manager of Research and Learning

Conference Call Participants

Daniel Moore - CJS Securities

Sami Kassab - BNP Paribas

Operator

Good morning. And welcome to Wiley's Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to introduce Wiley's Vice President of Investor Relations, Brian Campbell. Brian, please go ahead.

Brian Campbell

Thank you. And welcome, everyone. With me today are Matt Kissner, Wiley’s Interim President and CEO; and Christina Van Tassell, Executive Vice President and CFO. Also with us is Jay Flynn, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Research and Learning. He will be participating in our Q&A session along with Matt and Christina.

Note that our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those statements. The company does not undertake any obligation to update them to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Also, Wiley provides non-GAAP measures as a supplement to evaluate underlying operating profitability and performance trends. These measures do not have standardized meanings prescribed by US GAAP and therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies, nor should they be viewed as alternatives to measures under GAAP. Unless otherwise noted, we will refer to non-GAAP metrics on the call and variances are on a year-over-year basis and will exclude held-for-sale assets and the impact of currency. Additional information is included in our filings with the SEC. A copy of this presentation and transcript will be available on our Investor Relations web page at investors.wiley.com.

I will now turn the call over to Matt Kissner.

Matt Kissner

Thank you, Brian, and thank you all for joining. I'm pleased to be here with Christina and Jay. We and the rest of the leadership team are moving decisively on our value creation plan, which I'll talk about in a bit. I'll give you an update on my first 60 days and discuss my role in the transition. And of course, we'll review our second quarter performance and how we see the year shaping up. I'd like to speak a few moments about the interim CEO role in my first 60 days. The Board of Directors and I think about my role as a transition more than an interim. My responsibility is to execute the plans previously approved by the Board and improve the company's operating performance and profitability. From a personal perspective, it's a privilege to be back at Wiley during this critical juncture in our evolution. As a result of my long association with Wiley in various roles, I have an in-depth knowledge of the company's businesses, operations and markets. And I have strong relationships with Wiley colleagues across the globe. Frankly, I know our strengths and I know the areas requiring improvement. And I am in an excellent position to help drive the changes needed to significantly improve our performance. We are moving decisively to streamline the organization, divest noncore assets and rightsize Wiley for future success. During my first 60 days, we continue to execute on our reorg, announced the sale of University Services and moved aggressively on our cost base. While the leadership team and I are focused on executing, the Board is carefully considering various options for the future leadership of the company. In that regard, an important objective of mine is to assist the Board by assessing and enabling internal talent.