New York, August 22, 2011

Deven Sharma, president of of ratings agency Standard & Poor's(S&P) is to step down from his role. S&P was widely criticised by President Barack Obama for downgrading U.S. debt from AAA to AA+, the first debt downgrade in U.S. history. Shares on Wall Street slumped as a result and prompted the Mr Obama to say " "We didn't need a rating agency to tell us that we need a long-term approach to deficit reduction. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a AAA country". The McGraw-Hill Companies, owners of Standard & Poor's, today announced that Douglas Peterson (53), currently chief operating officer of Citibank N.A., will become president of Standard & Poor's from September 12, 2011. Deven Sharma (55) will take on a special assignment working on the Company's strategic portfolio review until the end of the year when he will leave the Company to pursue other opportunities.

In announcing the change, Harold McGraw III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of The McGraw-Hill Companies said, "As we welcome Doug, I particularly want to thank Deven for his dedicated leadership of S&P. Four years ago, in one of the most difficult times facing S&P in the midst of the financial crisis, I turned to Deven whose background as head of S&P's Investment Services, head of McGraw-Hill's Global Strategy and as a partner at Booz Allen & Company, brought the right kind of skills to address the situation. Today, S&P is a stronger company, whose 1,300 global analysts are sharply focused on the quality, independence and transparency of S&P's research and analytics. S&P's extraordinary professionals have engaged with thousands of investors, issuers, policymakers and regulators and they have implemented Leadership Actions which cover everything from analytics to governance, transparency, and investor and analyst education. S&P will continue to produce ratings that are comparable, forward looking and transparent.

"As was announced at the end of last year, Standard & Poor's was split into two separate organizations - S&P, our credit ratings service, and McGraw-Hill Financial - to enable both organizations to serve investors and customers more effectively. Deven assisted us with the creation of these two high-growth segments and was then ready for new challenges. Accordingly, we began a process to identify a new leader for S&P."

Mr. Sharma said, "It has been a privilege to serve as the president of S&P and I am proud of what we as an organization have achieved over the past four years. As McGraw-Hill continues its portfolio review, I will work closely with Terry and the leadership team to find ways to create even more shareholder value."

About Deven Sharma

Deven Sharma was named president of Standard & Poor’s, the leading credit ratings company and a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies in 2007. Mr. Sharma joined Standard & Poor’s in 2006 as executive vice president, Investment Services and Global Sales. Before joining Standard & Poor’s, he was executive vice president, Global Strategy at The McGraw-Hill Companies for five years.

Mr. Sharma joined The McGraw-Hill Companies in January 2002 from Booz Allen Hamilton, a global management consulting company, where he was a partner. During his 14 years with that firm, he provided guidance to client companies on business strategy and globalization, as well as on branding and sales management. Much of his experience includes work with global corporations in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and parts of Asia. Before joining Booz Allen, Mr. Sharma worked with manufacturing companies, Dresser Industries and Anderson Strathclyde.

Mr. Sharma holds a bachelor’s degree from the Birla Institute of Technology in India, a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a doctoral degree in Business Management from Ohio State University. He has authored several publications on competitive strategy, customer solutions, sales and marketing. He is chairman of the Board of Directors for CRISIL, a Standard & Poor’s company and India’s leading ratings, research, risk and policy advisory company.

Mr. Sharma is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Advisory Board of the British-American Business Council and serves on the Asia Society Business Council.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global financial information and education company that helps professionals and students succeed in the Knowledge Economy. With leading brands including Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts energy information services and J.D. Power and Associates, the Corporation has approximately 21,000 employees with more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2010 were $6.2 billion.