Barnes & Noble Education (BNED), the NYSE-listed provider to the education industry, has appointed Hunter Blankenbaker as vice president of IR. He reports to Thomas Donohue, executive vice president and CFO at the company.
Most recently, Blankenbaker was head of IR at human resources software company Justworks. Prior to that, he served as vice president of IR at Vonage, the cloud communications firm, until its $6.2 bn sale to Ericsson.
During more than 25 years of IR experience, Blankenbaker has also held roles at Verizon, Terremark (prior to its acquisition by Verizon) and TOUSA.
‘We are pleased to welcome Hunter to BNED as our new vice president of IR,’ says Donohue. ‘As the new head of IR, Hunter brings a wealth of experience with buy-side equity analysts and a strong network of relationships across the investment community.
‘His outstanding financial and analytical skills will be a great asset to BNED as we continue to advance our long-term value for shareholders.’
Blankenbaker’s IR duties at BNED now include working with management to communicate the corporate strategy and performance, supporting the quarterly earnings process and maintaining relationships with investors and analysts, according to a company statement.
He takes over the IR role at the education business from Andy Milevoj, BNED’s former vice president of corporate finance and IR, who has switched companies to become senior vice president of IR at 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
