The Assignment Report was founded by Richard Taylor in 2005 and was acquired in December 2007 by Meissa - a specialist consultancy and research company operating in the UK education sector. Meissa was set up by Ed Tranham and the company's main practice areas are bespoke research and consultancy and publishing commentary on the education market.

Ed Tranham is a well know figure in the education and publishing worlds having been actively involved in a number of companies within the sector over the past 20 years including most recently the AIM listed Electric Word plc to whom he and his partner Chris Kington sold Optimus Publishing. Prior to establishing Optimus he held senior positions at Pitman Publishing and Cambridge Education Associates. He is MD of Meissa.

Richard Taylor has worked in educational marketing and communications for fifteen years in Australia, Asia, the USA and the UK. Richard is the former owner of Educational Communications Australia, which he sold to a well-known UK education company in 2000. He has been a director or several companies and has also served on several industry and government bodies.