Whitehall Securities Corporation Limited was established in 1907 by Weetman Dickinson Pearson MP, who became Viscount Cowdray in 1917, together with Harold Pearson MP. On the 12th of December 1990, the company name was changed to Pearson Management Services Ltd. The company formed part of what is now the Pearson PLC group of business interests, initially one of the world's leading oil and construction contractors.