People Roundup, December 2011

CHANGES

Lauren Shakely is stepping down as VP, Publisher, Clarkson Potter, Potter Craft, Potter Style, and Watson-Guptill, and will be leaving the company.  Pam Krauss is returning to Crown from Rodale in the position of SVP, Publisher, Clarkson Potter.

Brendan Cahill has left his position as Publisher of Open Road Integrated Media and will relocate to Woodstock, VT when he becomes CEO of Green Mountain Digital. He may be reached at bcahill@greenmtd.com. Former Abrams CEO Andy Stewart founded the company in 2009, along with David Roberts and Charles Rattigan. The company produces a line of bird and natural guide apps with Audubon, and does apps with Orvis.

S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy announced in late November that she had “asked our digital group, led by Ellie Hirschhorn, to take on a greater role in working with our publishing teams on digital marketing campaigns for select  titles,” and concurrently it was announced that Frank Fochetta (ffochetta@aol.com), Lauren Monaco and “some others who have contributed much to Simon &  Schuster’s success over the years” will be leaving the company.  Shortly thereafter Sumya Ojakli was named Senior Director of Special Sales. Ojakli has operated a consulting company since 2003. SVP Marketing Liz Perl will now report directly to Reidy.

Meanwhile, Thomas LeBien has joined S&S as VP, Senior Editor. He was most recently at FSG, where he was publisher of the Hill & Wang and Scientific American imprints. Roger Labrie has left his position as Senior Editor at S&S and will be providing freelance editorial services to agents and authors. He is based in Summit, NJ, and may be reached at rlabrie311@comcast.net

The newly independent Monacelli Press, now located at 236 West 27th Street, announced that Christopher Lyon has been hired as Executive Editor, to direct its new electronic publishing initiative, aimed at developing book apps for museum and trade publications.  He had been at Prestel and MoMA. Heather Kirkpatrick, previously with Picador Macmillan, has been named Marketing Manager.  Managing Editor/Production Director Elizabeth White had been promoted to VP and Stacee Lawrence has been promoted to Senior Editor.

David Goehring has joined Wiley as Director of Digital Publishing for the professional/trade group. He was most recently Director of Harvard Business Press, and before that held executive positions at Perseus and Pearson.

David Rosen, who was most recently at Progressive Book Club, has been named Director of Digital Publishing at Invogen, an eBook conversion and enhancement. He may be reached at David.Rosen@invogen.com

Joy Dallanegra-Sanger has been named as Senior Program Officer, a new position, at ABA. Most recently, she was SVP and Director of Marketing at Macmillan Children’s and may be reached at Joy@bookweb.org

Jon Rosenberg has been named VP Publisher at Silver Dolphin. He came from Browntrout, the west coast calendar publisher, where he was VP, Publisher and Creative Director.

At Norton’s new imprint, Katie Henderson Adams has joined Liveright & Company as Editor, acquiring literary non-fiction and fiction. She was previously at Other Press.

Corinna Barsan is joining Grove/Atlantic as Senior Editor. She was previously Senior Editor at Other Press. She joins Senior Editor Jamison Stoltz and Amy Hundley, who has been promoted to Senior Editor/Rights Director.

At Other Press, Sulay Hernandez has joined as an editor, working on literary fiction and narrative nonfiction. She was previously at Touchstone/S&S.

In the wake of John Groton’s departure last month after just over a year as VP of Sales, National Book Network has reorganized its sales team and rehired Spencer Gale. The company also brought on Ron Powers, former CP of Sales for National Accounts, Ingram Content Group, to head NBN’s Fusion eBook business.

EVP, MD Egmont USA, Douglas Pocock had left  the company. Cally Poplak, Managing Director of Egmont Press, has taken over management of the U.S. business from London.

Rachel Vogel has joined Mary Evans as Foreign Rights Director and Literary Agent. She has previously held positions at Movable Type and Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

Jeff Umbro has joined Goldberg McDuffie as Digital Marketing Manager. He began his career with Appsolute Media, focused on social media marketing, content strategy and SEO.

Jeanne Finestone will be joining the United Nation’s Mission in Timor-Leste (East Timor) as Public Information Officer for Outreach. She was at Ananta Media and has held a number of marketing positions within children’s publishing.

Melissa Klare moved from Special Markets at Random House to Associate Director of Special Markets at Penguin.

Lisa Lee has joined Holiday House as Director of Production. She was previously Senior Production Manager, Children’s Books, at HarperCollins.

Executive Editor of features for Library Journal Rebecca T. Miller will become Editor-in-Chief of School Library Journal, filling the slot vacated by Brian Kenney. Miller has been at LJ since 1998.

On Demand Books has hired Karina Mikhli as Director of Content Development, focusing on publisher content permissions. She was VP of Publishing Operations at Assouline and Production Manager at Oxford University Press.


PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Jeff Weber has been named VP, Director, Online & Digital Sales, RH. He has held multiple sales and digital business development positions with the company since 2001.

Molly Barton will move up to Global Digital Director at Penguin. She takes over from Dan Ruffino, Group Digital Director, who is returning home to Australia.

At HarperCollins, Cindy DiTiberio has been promoted to Senior Editor. Mary Beth Silfin has been promoted to the new position of VP, Deputy General Counsel. As a result of changes in the legal and contracts departments, VP, Associate General Counsel Tom Ward will leave the company after more than 15 years.

At S&S Children’s imprints Simon Spotlight & Simon Scribbles, Siobhan Ciminera has been promoted to Executive Editor; Lisa Rao moves up to Editor; and Beth Barton has been promoted to Associate Editor.

Andrew Savikas has been named CEO of Safari Books online. He spent the past five years as Program Chair for O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference.

Harvard Business Review Press, the book publishing unit of Harvard Business Review Group, has promoted Sarah McConville to Publisher and Tim Sullivan to Editorial Director. Justin Fox, who has served as Editorial Director of the Press for the past 15 months, will continue as Editorial Director of the Harvard Business Review Group.

Frank Steinert, previously Random House VP, Human Resources, is promoted to Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer. He is head of HR for the company worldwide, and for the U.S. division.

 

DULY NOTED

Congratulations to Michael Cader and Publishers Marketplace, which celebrated it’s 10th anniversary this past month.  He tells subscribers that “Among the fun stats to share, we note that page views at PM are up 21 percent year-over-year, which is our biggest increase in the past five years (which is as far back as the stats log goes). And among the most satisfying is that, since 2004, we listed and shared almost 8,000 job postings, helping bring together employees and employers across the industry. Within our databases, we have reported 58,500 deals; aggregated 72,500 full-length book reviews; track 22,255 distinct ISBNs all the time through our Book Tracker; and host 1,750 web pages for members (including 469 pages for agents alone).”

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The Women’s National Book Association will present the annual WNBA Pannell Award to two bookstores—one a general bookstore and one a children’s specialty bookstore that “excels at inspiring kids interested in reading”—at BookExpo America in June. Each recipient will receive a check for $1,000 and a framed piece of original art by a noted children’s book illustrator. Deadline for nominations is Jan. 15. Nominated stores can make their submissions to the Pannell jury electronically via email: vtomaselli@mtmpublishing.com


UPCOMING EVENTS

The Center for Fiction honors Nan Graham at its gala on December 6 at the University Club. Jeannette Walls is the MC and Don DeLillo will present the award.  Stephen King and Susan Moldow are honorary chairs.  For details go to www.centerforfiction.org

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The winners of the 16th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards will be announced during an awards ceremony at The New York Times Center in New York City on Monday, March 12, 2012 where industry honoree, Skip Prichard, President and CEO of Ingram Content Group, Inc. will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

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