fernando bleichmar

general manager higher ed and skills

About

My passion and the focus of my professional career is helping teams and organizations transform to successfully tackle the really hard challenges they face, with the ultimate goal of delivering superior products and services to customers. I help structure and bring together the vision, culture, capabilities, and talent of a company so it can reach its "true north." At Cengage Learning, I am pleased to apply my experience and skills to one of my life's passions, education. I have always been very active and interested in education. My parents own a Higher Ed school in Mexico, and I have worked with them since I can remember. In my previous jobs at Boston Consulting Group and Elsevier, I spent a lot of time working in and thinking about education. Now, as Chief Product Officer at Cengage, I am working with colleagues across the organization to fundamentally improve the learning experience for faculty and students. Specialties: Strategy Development, Change Management, Commercial and Go-To-Market Execution, Commercialization Strategy

Country

united states

City

boston

Industry

e-learning

Skill

Experience

chief product officer

cengage learning

2017-3 - 2019-1 · 1 yr 11 mos

I drove the development, expansion and transformation of Cengage’s product portfolio to simultaneously improve affordability and quality of learning for our customers.

senior vice-president of strategy and business development

reed elsevier

2010-3 - 2013-7 · 3 yrs 5 mos

* Worked with the Elsevier Health Sciences management team to develop solutions in the health information space. Led pricing, go-to-market strategies, portfolio evaluation, product definition, * customer intelligence, and change management initiatives including: * Go to market evaluation and transformation initiative for $400M business; including * restructuring of sales organization, customer coverage model , and new product offering definition * Definition, business plan, and implementation plan for new electronic platform (customer * discovery, requirement definition, execution plan, and organization definition) * Market evaluation / strategy definition in healthcare analytics and disease management * Managed investment process for $1B+ transaction in provider and payer analytics, including * commercial diligence, synergy assessment and modeling, Offering Memorandum development * Portfolio transformation process working with local management of 10+ businesses

principal, project leader, consultant, associate

the boston consulting group (bcg)

2000-6 - 2010-3 · 9 yrs 10 mos

* Focused on information services and corporate development. I received the fastest promotion from Consultant to Principal (36 months) in previous 5+ years of NY Office and was selected for prestigious Ambassador Program for top performers to work a year abroad. Among the projects I led at BCG were: * Product development and commercial strategy of new offering for global retail company. * Pricing and product strategy for leading B2B information services provider. * Turnaround execution of leading B2C retailer. * Blue ocean growth strategy for Fortune 500 software technology company * Corporate growth strategy for leading European healthcare company

general manager higher ed and skills

cengage learning

2019-1 - Present · 7 yrs 9 mos

I oversee all functions supporting our U.S. Higher Education and Skills business, and lead a cross-functional team focused on delivering affordable quality learning for students and driving the continued success of Cengage Unlimited.

chief strategy officer

cengage learning

2014-1 - 2017-12 · 4 yrs

I am proud to work with the rest of the Executive Team and the entire organization to define and execute our strategy in order to fundamentally impact how learning happens; leveraging our content, technology, and services to improve the traditional classroom learning experience for our faculty and students.