She was criticized by Private Eye magazine because, while Oxfam campaigns against corporate tax avoidance as part of the IF Coalition, Pearson was "a prolific tax haven user ... routing hundreds of millions of pounds through an elaborate series of Luxembourg companies (and a Luxembourg branch of a UK company) to avoid tax".P5, no 1374, 5–18 September 2014, Private Eye. She became the first female Chief Executive of a FTSE 100 company when she was appointed CEO of PearsonBBC female achievements timeline, bbc.co.uk. Accessed 20 November 2022. in 1997. She is also a non-executive director of Nokia and former CEO of the Economist Group. During her time at Pearson, Pearson's profits tripled, to a record £942m.
