Pearson VUE leadership

Gary Gates serves as Managing Director, Pearson VUE, where he leads the Pearson VUE Senior Executive team. Gary has been part of Pearson VUE for more than 10 years, with responsibility for leading international growth by acquiring new business, establishing key partnerships, and collaborating across other Pearson businesses. He has a long track record of proven leadership, and in-depth knowledge of Pearson VUE’s culture and service offerings. From 2019 to 2021, his responsibilities in Pearson were extended to include leadership of the Pearson UK Higher Education business.

Prior to joining Pearson, Gary was a company director of ITIS Holdings plc, a digital content company, and held management positions with British Nuclear Fuels Plc and British Energy. Gary received his PhD in Computational Physics from the University of Liverpool and graduated with honors from the University of York with a BSc in Theoretical Physics.

Kellie Britten oversees the content development, psychometric services, and publishing services teams within Pearson VUE. A member of the Pearson VUE Senior Executive Team, Kellie provides direction on test development, growth initiatives, assessment publishing strategy, and business development.

In this role, she oversees contracted examination development processes for Pearson VUE’s professional and IT certification, US state licensure, and admissions market client assessment programmes across the globe. She also manages the testing services technologies team that provides administrative and technical support for Pearson VUE’s proprietary content tools, including ExamDeveloper, to both staff and clients.

Kellie brings 20 years of content development experience in the testing industry, specialising in the regulatory, professional certification, and K–12 school markets. As a content developer, subject matter expert (SME), and then manager for her previous employer, she was part of a team that developed US regulatory licensure exams across a number of disciplines, including insurance and real estate.

As the Senior Director of Global HR for Pearson VUE, Scott Chabot plays a pivotal role in shaping the organization’s workforce strategy and championing its commitment to employee excellence. With a keen understanding of the global business landscape and its complexities, Scott ensures that HR practices align with business objectives, fostering an environment that empowers employees and drives team success.

Scott has more than 22 years of progressive HR experience, giving him a deep understanding of the industry and a proven track record of achievement. He is a trusted advisor, partnering closely with senior executives to shape talent strategy and foster organizational effectiveness.

His collaborative approach promotes a culture of inclusivity, engagement, and continuous growth, enabling employees to thrive both professionally and personally. With Scott's integral leadership skills and extensive experience, Pearson VUE is well-equipped to navigate the dynamic world of human resources, creating an environment where employees can thrive, contribute their best, and collectively achieve remarkable results.

Wyatt Gordon is Senior Vice President and Head of Evaluation Systems, which provides support and solutions for educators, states, and education preparation programmes across the United States. Wyatt has more than a decade of experience in education and testing, during which he’s been responsible for leading functional areas such as customer success, product quality, risk management, and vendor management as well as overall business leadership of several teacher certification and learning products. His primary goal is improving outcomes for learners and educators while executing the strategic vision of Evaluation Systems.

Wyatt is from a family of educators that have focused on equity and academic excellence across educational contexts. He holds a doctorate in education from Rutgers University and three master’s degrees (Education Policy from Columbia University; Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin; and Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin). Wyatt also holds a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Bridget Herd is the leader of programmers management, she makes certain that the service expectations of all clients are met or exceeded by her team of expert program managers. She is a results-oriented professional with more than 18 years of success in all aspects of programme management, including marketing, development, launch, and programme transition. Bridget has an added focus of bringing ongoing process improvement and quality assurance to the company’s growing business.

Bridget is also responsible for leadership of Pearson’s “Partnership in Innovation” programme, which involves evaluating, integrating, and managing vendors and their technologies to supplement Pearson VUE’s system capabilities. Her in-depth understanding of clients’ testing challenges—resulting from direct oversight of their programmes—allows her to leverage technology partners who can both meet Pearson VUE’s client needs and integrate well with our internal processes.

Corey Hoesley is responsible for all the operations that support Pearson VUE’s business functionality. In addition to his position on the company’s senior executive team, he provides daily and strategic leadership for Pearson VUE global operations, including the company-owned and –operated testing channel, security, customer service, technical support desk, network operations, information systems, quality control, data integrity, and fulfillment. Corey has proven himself to be an effective leader of multiple operational departments in his tenure. His nearly 20 years of operational management experience and testing and assessment business experience offer a unique combination to our clients.

Corey holds a BS in Mass Communications with a minor in Economics from St. Cloud University.

Nancy brings more than 25 years of marketing, communications, and advertising experience to her leadership role overseeing global marketing across all of Assessments. With a particular focus on creating excellent candidate experiences and deepening client relationships, she is committed to elevating the Pearson Assessments brand on all fronts.

Nancy brings a commitment to excellence and a clear strategic vision to her work leading the marketing teams that drive the Assessments division forward. Her broad expertise in strategic planning, global branding, and go-to-market execution contributes to strengthening the competitive edge of Pearson Assessments.

Cordell serves as strategic business adviser to the executive team. He oversees legal, regulatory, and compliance matters globally across the organisation. As General Counsel for NCS Pearson, Cordell has legal responsibility for Pearson VUE, Pearson School Assessments, and Pearson Clinical Assessment. He focuses on proactive analysis and queries to assist the executive team in enhancing business growth strategies while reducing risks. Cordell manages an international legal team that has designed several global strategies including data privacy, litigation/protests, and critical incident response management among others. He also leads the effort in pursuit of criminal and civil recourse to enhance the security around test centre delivery and online proctoring. 

Cordell has over 20 years of legal experience and 12 years of data privacy experience. He holds an AMP in business and finance from University of Chicago Booth School of Business; a JD from Catholic University of America; and an economics and finance degree from St. Cloud State University. He also sits on a nonprofit board that sponsors programs that promote education, finance, and physical/mental health for underrepresented communities in the Twin Cities. 

Ray leads Pearson VUE’s Global Business Development organisation. In his nearly 28 years with Pearson VUE, Ray has held many roles at different global offices. Ray was instrumental in building our first channel network of testing centres across Asia-Pacific and, under his leadership, we signed our first clients in the region. Ray went on to establish and manage Pearson VUE’s first offices in Delhi, Tokyo, and Beijing.

When he moved to the US, Ray led business development for our IT business and secured the business of Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Apple, Cisco, HP, IBM, and Facebook. He also handles the General Management of Pearson VUE’s Certiport business, Growth Services team, and oversight of the global PVTC network.  

A member of Pearson VUE’s senior leadership team, Sean directs strategic planning, implementation, management, and control of the company’s financial activities. He also leads Pearson VUE’s global finance and accounting teams and assists with merger and acquisition efforts.

Sean has more than 25 years of financial leadership experience and has been part of the Pearson VUE family for over 20 years, starting in internal audits. He previously held the positions of senior financial analyst and finance director. A registered CPA, Sean holds a degree in Accounting from St. Cloud State University.

Elaine Pulakos is CEO of PDRI and an expert in building organizational and team capabilities that translate into business growth. She is well known for her research and writing on agility and resilience, and has extensive global experience helping companies build these capabilities to increase their competitive advantage and performance.

She has authored numerous articles, six books, and three best-practice volumes for the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). Her most recent book, Performance Management Transformation: Lessons Learned and Next Steps, is a set of case studies from marquee companies, new research, and implications for the future.

Elaine’s work has been recognized with several awards, including the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology’s (SIOP) Distinguished Professional Contributions Award and the William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award. She is also a two-time winner of the M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace. Elaine is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and SIOP, for which she also served as president.