At a Glance

  • Publisher Wiley has appointed former Xerox executive Craig Albright as chief financial officer, effective June 26, according to a securities filing submitted by the company on Monday.
  • Albright will succeed interim finance chief Chris Caridi, who will remain at the Hoboken, New Jersey-based company as senior vice president, chief accounting officer, and head of finance transformation.
  • The academic materials publisher named its new CFO as it seeks to "shape the future of AI in research," having launched an AI collaboration and innovation initiative in October. The company also reported that AI licensing agreement revenue nearly doubled in fiscal 2025 to $40 million, up from $23 million in fiscal 2024, according to its latest earnings report.

Deep Dive

Albright will receive an annual salary of $550,000 as Wiley's CFO, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He will also be eligible for an annual incentive opportunity targeted at 100% of base salary and annual grants under the company's long-term incentive plan with a target incentive of 200% of base salary. Wiley will also provide relocation compensation and other support.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Albright spent two decades at Xerox in various executive roles, most recently serving as its CFO and head of the Americas and Global Cash Center. He began his career as a business analyst and consultant at Big Four accounting firm Deloitte, then served as an executive consultant at marketing firm Butler/Till, and founded his own consulting firm, Albright Strategy & Capital, in December of last year.

Albright said in a press release announcing the appointment on Monday that joining Wiley "represents a tremendous opportunity to further position the company for the AI era."

Caridi joined Wiley in 2017 as controller and chief accounting officer. He had been serving as interim finance chief since Christina Van Tassell departed in October of last year, according to a press release at the time. Effective April 1, Wiley raised Caridi's compensation from $406,653 to $450,000 and increased his annual target incentive to 85% of base salary to cover his tenure as interim CFO, according to a March filing with the SEC.

In its latest earnings report released in mid-June, the company said its full-year fiscal 2025 results benefited from growth in AI licensing agreement revenue as well as cost-cutting and research growth efforts. For fiscal 2025, which ended April 30, Wiley reported operating income jumped to $221 million, compared with $52 million in the prior fiscal year.

Wiley's AI licensing revenue included an $18 million agreement with a "new multinational technology customer" that was executed in the fourth quarter, CEO Matthew Kissner said on the earnings call, according to a transcript. Kissner said Wiley recognized $9 million of that revenue in the most recent quarter and expects to recognize the remaining $9 million in the upcoming first quarter.

Among other measures to further integrate AI into its platform, the company has also struck partnerships with platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Perplexity and launched an AI innovation initiative.

"Research-intensive enterprises are increasingly using AI-driven content and tools to accelerate product development, identify breakthroughs, and shorten cycle times. That's where Wiley comes in," Kissner said on the earnings call regarding the company's AI initiatives. "Our rich content and data catalog can be embedded into vertical-specific AI models and applications across technology, healthcare, information services, industrials, and more to drive efficiency and impact."

The company's efforts to integrate AI come as the broader publishing industry grapples with the technology's impact on the field, including ongoing debates over how copyright law should apply to AI. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against major players such as Microsoft and OpenAI, while lawmakers and publishers have weighed in on guidelines for technology use. The U.S. Copyright Office noted in a January report that "generative AI outputs can be protected by copyright only when a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements."

Wiley has also released guidelines on the use of AI in research writing, aimed at helping answer "common questions about effectively integrating AI while protecting intellectual property and maintaining the integrity of work," according to the publisher's website.