"Simon brings more than 15 years of successful global sales and marketing experience in our industry," said Prichard. "His leadership and deep knowledge of the market has been instrumental in our consistent double-digit growth internationally. I am confident that Simon's energy, customer focus, and business acumen will insure continued and even greater success."

"I am excited to take on this new role of Senior Vice President of Global Sales," said Beale. "I look forward to working closely with the Sales organization and building on the momentum of a successful 2005 to develop new opportunities for ProQuest."

Beale joined ProQuest Information and Learning in June 2002 as Vice President of International Sales and Marketing.   In 2004 Beale also was given responsibility for driving international business development initiatives.

Before joining ProQuest, Beale was Executive Director of Sales at Elsevier Health Sciences, EMEA division; Director of Sales at Harcourt Publishers Europe; Director of Sales at Prentice Hall Europe, and International Sales and Marketing Manager at Pitman/FT Publishing, Pearson. He also held various sales and marketing positions in Addison Wesley and Simon and Schuster.

Beale holds a bachelor's degree from Loughborough University, UK, has studied extensively in the United States, and is an active member of the UK Publishers Association.

He and his family will be relocating to the Ann Arbor, Michigan area in the coming months, and he will be based out of the ProQuest global headquarters there.

ProQuest Information and Learning, a division of ProQuest Company, is a world leader in collecting, organizing, and publishing information worldwide for researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. Known widely for its strength in business and economics, general reference, humanities, social sciences, and STM content, the company develops premium databases comprising periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 8,500 publishers worldwide.  Users access the information through the ProQuest® Web-based online information system, Chadwyck-Healey™  electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary®, SIRS®  and Voyager Expanded Learning educational resources.  For more information about ProQuest Information and Learning, visit www.il.proquest.com.