Janet Wikler is president of Wikler and Company, Inc., a consulting firm that helps people and organizations create new ventures and strengthen existing ones. With over 30 years of hands-on experience, Ms. Wikler has a solid track record in general management, strategic and business planning, marketing, finance, and fund raising.
In her role as President of Wikler and Company, Inc. Ms. Wikler has provided guidance and hands-on help, and, in some cases, interim management, to scores of organizations (see partial client list).
Ms. Wikler played a leading role in developing the vision, strategy, and institutional buy-in that led to the creation of TC Innovations, a wholly owned unit of Teachers College, Columbia University that provides teacher professional development programs to school districts across the country. Later, as acting president of TC Innovations Ms. Wikler provided vision, direction, and hands-on management, raised more than $7.5 million in new funding, hired and led the staff, improved the core product and developed a new product, established key partnerships, and created a professional sales and marketing capability.
Ms. Wikler has also served as a senior executive for a number of for-profit and non-profit organizations. As Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for The College Board she introduced new strategic planning and budgeting processes; negotiated the financial terms of a major contract for tens of millions of dollars in annual savings; developed new pricing strategies which improved financial performance; and transformed the finance department from a purely accounting-focused operation to a high-performance team that provided timely information and analysis to inform business decisions.
As Group Vice President and Director of Advanced Media for HarperCollins Publishers Ms. Wikler started, directed, and led the company's multimedia publishing business. Earlier, as Senior Vice President and Director of Strategic Planning for Simon & Schuster, Ms. Wikler guided the restructuring of the Education and Consumer Groups for improved financial performance. Before that, as Vice President of Business Development and Director of Media Development at Pearson, Inc., the U.S. arm of Pearson plc, Ms. Wikler managed a multi-million dollar venture capital portfolio, played a key role in corporate acquisitions, and worked with operating units in the U.S. and U.K. to capitalize on new opportunities.
As Director of Marketing and Development and Director of Electronic Publishing Development for Times Mirror's Professional Information and Book Publishing Group Ms. Wikler played a key role in strategic planning and the application of new technologies to the company's businesses. She was instrumental in the Group's diversification into new areas of business and played a leading role in the acquisition and integration of six companies, which doubled the Group's size and made it the largest contributor of cash and profit to its parent company.
Ms. Wikler was Director of Communications for Mead Data Central in the early 1980s. She launched NEXIS into new markets, dramatically increasing revenues and profits. She has also held direct marketing, marketing management, sales management, and general management positions with McGraw-Hill, Random House, and The College Board.
Ms. Wikler holds an M.B.A from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Master of Science degree in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year. A former elementary school teacher, Ms. Wikler is the author of How to Study and Learn, a children's book published by Franklin Watts in 1978. She has published numerous articles on various aspects of business and new technologies and is co-author of "Publishing as a Creature of Technology," published by Harvard University's Program on Information Resources Policy.
