Wilmington Group plc announces the following appointments to its Board of Directors.

Mark Asplin has been appointed Chairman in succession to David Summers.  Mark is a Chartered Accountant and was formerly a partner with KPMG, which he left to set up Jasper Corporate Finance, an independent corporate finance practice.  Mark, whose appointment is effective immediately,  joined Wilmington’s Board in April 2005 and was previously the Group’s Senior Independent Director.  David, whose intention to step down as Chairman this month was announced with the Company’s recent full year results, will retire from the Board on 31 December 2011.

Derek Carter and Nathalie Schwarz will join the Board as Independent Non Executive Directors from 1 December 2011.

Derek was previously Chief Executive of Emap Communications for 11 years, where he led Emap’s growth into a market leading mixed media business built on powerful information, events and magazine brands, and its subsequent sale to Apax/GMG in 2008. Derek, who was previously Chairman of the Periodical Publishers Association and currently Chairman of Docugroup, a leading European information business serving the construction sector, will be the new Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Nominations Committee.

Nathalie was formerly the Commercial and Corporate Development Director on the Board at Channel 4 Television and was Strategy and Development Director on the Board of Capital Radio plc.  Nathalie qualified as a solicitor with Clifford Chance and will be Chair of the Remuneration Committee.

Neil Smith, Wilmington’s Chief Operating Officer, is appointed an Executive Director with effect from 1 December.  Neil Smith has worked in the media industry for 22 years. In 1997 he led an MBO of the Business Information division of Macmillan which was backed by Wilmington and he subsequently led the development of the Group’s professional information divisions prior to his appointment as Group Chief Operating Officer earlier this year. Neil has been a member of the Wilmington Executive Board since 2004 and in 2005 he gained a Masters in Finance (with distinction) from London Business School.

As reported in the IMS released on 15 November 2011 Rob Farquharson has recently been appointed as Managing Director of Central Law Training Limited to lead the legal and corporate training businesses.  Rob qualified as a solicitor with Clifford Chance, was a consultant at Bain & Co and for the last 7 years was at Reed Elsevier, most recently as Director of Lexis Nexis Connect.

Mark Asplin, Chairman, commented:

“The Board is most grateful to David for his contribution to Wilmington during his eleven years on the Board, most latterly as Chairman. We wish him well in his retirement.

“I am delighted to assume the role of Chairman at this important time in Wilmington’s development.  These Board appointments and other recent senior management changes strengthen the breadth and experience of the Group’s senior team and I look forward to working with my colleagues to take the group forward and deliver strong returns for shareholders.”