Corporate Social Responsibility – Governance

Creating Shareholder Value and Growth Through Strong Governance 

As a global employer serving millions of learners and educations in more than 165 countries and territories, Cengage Group maintains a strong commitment to corporate governance. We comply with all local, regional and national legislation everywhere we operate, and all of our brands are guided—and united—by our corporate purpose, Credo and Ethos. Together, these commitments drive ownership and accountability throughout our global organization and encourage us to operate openly and transparently with our investors, employees, customers and other key stakeholders.

Starting at the Top with Accountability

Our corporate governance structure includes an seven-member Board of Directors and six Executive Officers. Cengage Group CEO Michael E. Hansen serves as both a director and officer. Members of the Board’s Audit Committee work with outside auditors to produce quarterly and annual financial results, which are shared with investors and other interested parties.

All Cengage Group officers, directors and employees are expected to follow Cengage Group’s Code of Conduct and business conduct and ethics policies. Our Code of Conduct is a set of guiding principles designed to communicate our ethical standards clearly and concisely. It guides us wherever we do business throughout the world.  Our business conduct and ethics policies support and expand on the principle covered by the code.  In 2021, we also introduced a Global Speak Up Line. This third-party hosted reporting system provides employees with an easy option to report concerns outside of standard reporting lines, and also allows employees to report anonymously if preferred (in accordance with local law). Concerns raised through the Speak Up Line are routed directly to our Compliance Office, which sits within the legal department.

Our Code of Conduct, business conduct and ethics policies, and Global Speak Up Line, together with with our strong compliance and ethics practices, bring to life our belief that all employees at Cengage Group are accountable to and for each other, and enforce our expectation that each and every employee will put fairness, equality and integrity at the heart of everything we do.

Safeguarding Data and Information Privacy

We respect an individual’s desire to retain agency over their personal information. We also recognize the value in applying some of that information to provide each learner with an effective, personalized learning journey suited to their unique education and career goals. To achieve this balance, we implement a suite of security safeguards that protect customer data from unintended use or malicious attack, help maintain availability of our platforms without disruption and identify and eliminate weaknesses in our products that could lead to breaches. Note that Cengage Group does not sell any student information or other personal information that we collect from website visitors or the users of our products.

The Cengage Group Global Privacy Program extends to all Cengage Group companies and covers all personal information collected, whether online or offline. The program protects the information we receive from customers, schools and other third parties in keeping with our Core Privacy Principles and multifaceted cybersecurity program.

For more, please see the Cengage Group Privacy Notice.

Delivering Shareholder Value

Cengage Group serves the higher education, secondary education, workforce skills, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. The diversity of our offerings puts us in a strong position to leverage market fluctuations, adopt new learning technologies and meet the needs of a wide range of customers. Our central purpose as an education company, along with our mission to improve lives through education, position us to uniquely serve various segments of the growing employee skills market. In this way and others, our focus on citizenship and business growth are mutually reinforcing and allow us to deliver shareholder value while also supporting critical societal needs.

We are committed to driving shareholder value through our transition of the business to a digital-first model that has seen growth in recurring revenue, supported by an optimized cost structure that allows us to deliver earnings success. The success of our digital-first migration is proven in the uptake of our digital products, which accounted for less than 50% of net sales prior to 2012, but which now accounts for more than 70% of net sales. By 2030 we project 90% of net sales will be generated from digital products. As we hone our focus on E4E, our wide array of high-quality skills-oriented offerings will help improve the lives of millions in the U.S. alone, and many more globally.

To learn more about Cengage Group, visit cengagegroup.com/investors