Experian Chief Skilling Will Retire

D. Van Skilling, who helped turn Experian Inc. into a credit data industry giant, is retiring, the company announced Tuesday.

Skilling, who has been with the Orange-based company for nearly 30 years, steered Experian through a series of important transitions in recent years, including its split from former parent TRW Inc..

He will step down March 31.

“It’s the right time,” Skilling said Tuesday. “I want to spend more time with my family and pursue other interests, as well as staying involved with Experian.”

Skilling, 65, said he intends to play golf and learn to fly-fish. He will retain his seat on the Experian global board and will continue to chair the company’s Consumer Advisory Council.

A successor has not been announced.

In addition to guiding Experian through its ownership transitions in recent years, Skilling is credited with broadening the company’s reach into direct marketing.

“He’s been at the helm during a profound shift and a better rounding of services,” spokeswoman Julie Springer said.

Experian provides consumer and business credit reports and develops software and database products used to establish property values, analyze market trends and determine whether prospective borrowers are worthy of credit. The company also provides demographic and consumer lifestyle information to direct marketers.

Experian’s high-tech system can quickly pull files on millions of people and business, producing customized packages of information.

Experian’s roots can be traced to aerospace giant TRW’s 1969 purchase of Credit Data Corp., a Michigan-based credit reporting business that was one of the first in the industry to computerize. That subsidiary became TRW Information Systems & Services.

When Skilling became its general manager in 1989, he streamlined TRW Information’s operations, unloading some of its businesses and slashing the number of employees, including thinning the management ranks to 30 people from 180.

Skilling also had to deal with public outrage at the time over reports that consumers’ credit files held inaccurate information, and a perception that credit reporting agencies would not help people correct the errors.

Eventually, Congress waded into that debate. And in 1992, Skilling testified before a congressional committee, calling for federal legislation to regulate his industry.

In a separate type of lobbying in the mid-1990s, Skilling urged Cleveland-based TRW to sell its credit information subsidiary or let it use its cash to grow. In September 1996, TRW sold an 80% stake in TRW Information for $1 billion to an investment group that included Skilling and most of the subsidiary’s other top managers. The new owners changed the company’s name to Experian and Skilling became the chief executive.

Two months later, Great Universal Stores PLC, a British retailing and financial services conglomerate that owns the Burberry’s retail chain, purchased Experian for $1.7 billion.

Skilling said at the time that the acquisition was the “fastest and best” way to achieve his goal of taking the company worldwide.

The company has been expanding since then by acquiring direct mail companies. Last year, for example, Experian purchased Metromail Corp. a direct mail marketing company based in Lombard, Ill., for $910 million.

“The business has grown. . . . It’s got a wonderful future,” Skilling said.

Skilling is also relinquishing his titles as deputy chairman of Experian Group and chairman of Experian North America.