Cengage Announces Appointment of Laura Stevens as EVP and GC
Laura Stevens has been promoted to executive vice president and general counsel of Cengage, an education and technology company.
She joined Cengage in 2003, and worked on efforts to ready the business for the transition to digital. Based in the Boston headquarters, Stevens will serve on the executive team and will lead the legal function in support of the company’s strategy, Cengage said in a release.
“Among the many impressive highlights of Laura’s career here at Cengage are her forward-thinking efforts to realign our Intellectual Property licensing function to enable the Cengage Unlimited model, the industry’s first-of-its kind subscription service,” said Michael Hansen, CEO, Cengage. “Laura has been a powerhouse on our Legal team over the years, and I welcome the addition of her voice on the Executive Team as we continue to break with tradition to increase access to education.”
In her previous role as senior vice president and deputy general counsel, Stevens designed and recruited a 50+ person legal team to reflect a rapid print-to-digital transformation. In addition, she established the Cengage Privacy Office, creating industry-leading standards for responsible data stewardship. The company said Stevens continues to drive legal efforts around industry-wide implementation of anti-piracy bestpPractices with partners, which have resulted in a double-digit decrease in counterfeit texts among some of the company’s largest distributors.
Over the past 15 years, Stevens served a number of roles within the Cengage (and formerly Thomson Learning) legal team, including assistant general counsel, intellectual property, and publishing counsel. Prior to Cengage, she was an attorney at Brown Raysman LLP in New York City.
Stevens holds a B.A. in Political Science and Art History from the University of Rochester and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.
