Joe Wong Joins Harcourt Assessment As Vice President Of Information Services

24 October 2005

SAN ANTONIO – Leading test developer and publisher Harcourt Assessment, Inc. announced today that Joe Wong has joined the company as vice president of information services as part of a restructuring of the company's information technology (IT) organization designed to better align with company objectives.

In this new position, Wong will report to Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Everett Plante and will oversee the company's core business strategies. He will have responsibility for the IT Resource Center, as well as telecommunications and security infrastructure, and all existing core systems.

The company is recruiting for a vice president of software engineering to focus on the delivery of new technology, such as the Harcourt Spectrum™ customer portal and the company's Harcourt Unison™ platform for online test delivery. That appointment is expected soon.

"Joe Wong is a proven leader in the information technology field with an excellent record delivering large IT projects, developing strong partnerships with clients and building high performing teams at Fortune 100 companies,"

Plante said.

"Harcourt Assessment will benefit from his experience and insight, and I am pleased to welcome him to my team."

Prior to joining Harcourt, Wong was chief information officer at RWE Trading Americas, a new energy trading company that is a subsidiary of a European energy company. Wong established the IT capabilities of the new company, including the implementation of a data center, and created an IT infrastructure and organization that enabled the company to trade $1.5 billion in power, natural gas, petroleum products and coal.

Prior to that, Wong held information technology positions at Enron, Chemconnect.com, Koch Industries and ExxonMobil.

Wong holds a master's degree in business administration and a bachelor's of science degree in computer science, both from the University of Houston.

Wong and his wife, Sherri, and their two children will relocate from Houston and will reside in the San Antonio area.

Based in San Antonio, Harcourt Assessment is a leading provider of high-quality assessment instruments and testing programs used by educators, psychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, human resource professionals, admissions and credentialing professionals, and businesses. Through the development of custom statewide educational testing programs, Harcourt is helping more than 20 states meet the accountability requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The company is a unit of Harcourt Education, which is the global education brand of Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: RUK and ENL). Reed Elsevier is a world-leading publisher and information provider operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business industry sectors.