People Roundup, July 2012

PEOPLE

Dan Farley, former President and Publisher of Macmillan Children’s, and subsequently EVP Business Development at SwoopThat, announced that the company and its newly launched HubEd, have been acquired by Rafter.com. As a result, it will move to the Bay Area and, says Farley, “I will not be going forward with the new venture.” He may be reached at dhfarley1@gmail.com

In late June (but before the NewsCorp spinoff of the publisher with the educational and newspaper holdings) HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray announced changes to the sales department “to better integrate marketing, sales and analysis.” His statement was followed up details of those changes including news that: Jeff Rogart, VP, Director of Distributor Sales will retire at the end of August; Ken Berger, Mike Brennan, Mark Hillesheim, Kathy Smith and Jeanette Zwart, will be leaving the company on July 20. Dan Holod, VP of Customer Service and Gail Kunda, Director of Customer Service, are also both retiring, on July 13. Frank Albanese has moved over from operations to the sales department as SVP, Market Insight and Sales Operations. He and Dan Lubart SVP, Sales Analytics and Pricing now report to Josh Marwell, though the former “will continue to be responsible for the Supply Chain group and report to Larry Nevins in this capacity.” Doug Jones assumes the role of SVP, Group Sales Director for General Books. Brian Grogan SVP, Sales and Andrea Pappenheimer, SVP, Children’s Sales report to him and continue in their roles directing the day-to-day print and digital sales effort And Grogan will also become the main sales liaison with the publishing and marketing teams at Avon Books, and Mary Beth Thomas, formerly VP, Distribution is now VP, Deputy Director of Sales, reports to Grogran while Kerry Moynagh, VP, Deputy Director Sales reports to Pappenheimer.

Perseus Books Group, which moved to 250 West 57^th Street at the end of June (see below), announced it is phasing out Vanguard Press imprint and has made management changes at Running Press. Vanguard publisher Roger Cooper will be staying to publish the fall hardcovers and trade paperbacks and then will become a Senior Consultant to the Perseus Books, while Running Press Editorial Director Greg Jones will leave and Jennifer Kasius has been named Editorial Director of the adult side of the business. Kristen Wiewora has been promoted to Senior Editor and Jordana Tusman to Editor, continuing to report to Kasius. Frances Soo Ping Chow, who had been heading up the children’s publishing is now Design Director for the whole imprint.

Katie Freeman has joined Riverhead as Associate Director of Publicity on July 2. She was most recently Publicity Manager at FSG.

Melville House has hired Claire Kelley as Director, Academic and Library Marketing. She was most recently Marketing Manager at Free Press. Dustin Kurtz, previously General Manager and Buyer at McNally Jackson, has been named Marketing Manager.

Lyron Bennet is new Business Development Manager at Sourcebooks. He was Key Account Manager at Tribeca, a consumer electronics company.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Philip Ruppel being named President of McGraw-Hill Education International (in addition to his title of President of McGraw-Hill Professional).

Sheila O’Shea, has been named Associate Publisher of Broadway Books and Hogarth Paperbacks reporting to Senior VP and Publisher of Crown, Molly Stern. She had overseen PR for Random House’s digital initiatives, With the move, Meagan Stacey, has been promoted to Senior Editor, reporting to O’Shea.

Shawn Morin has been promoted to COO of Ingram Content Group. He joined the company in 2009 as CIO. Before that, he was CIO and VP of information technology at Bass Pro Shops, CIO of Royal Numico, and lead engineer for Lockheed Space Operations at the Kennedy Space Center.

DULY NOTED

Two S&S imprints are celebrating anniversaries: Atria just hit 10 years, and Free Press is coming up on 65 years.

The Perseus Book Group has moved most of its New York City offices into one location at 250 W. 57^th St. The move will unite the 70 people currently located at the company’s 387 Park Ave. South location with the 16 PublicAffairs staffers on one floor in the building (PublicAffairs is already in the 57^th St. location, but will move two floors up). International and the NY staff for PGW remain at 853 Broadway.

The American Jerusalem International Book Fair (JIBF) Advisory Committee announced that the deadline for applications for its popular Editor and Agent Fellowships for the 2013 Fair has been set for July 16, 2012. The Fair dates are February 10-15, 2013, with the Fellows’ week-long program beginning two days earlier, on February 8. The 2013 JIBF will mark the 26th anniversary of the Fair, which was established in 1973. Applications are available at http://jibffellowship.com/

IN MEMORIAM

Tony Schulte — a former Vice President at Knopf and Executive Vice President at Random House — died died on June 17 at the age of 82. A memorial service will be in September.

Children’s book veteran Deborah Brodie died on Wednesday, June 27. She was 67 and had suffered from cancer. She began her publishing career in 1979 at Viking Children’s Books and had risen to the position of Executive Editor, when she left in 2001. In January 2001, Brodie became a Co-founder of the Roaring Brook Press imprint at Millbrook Press, and in 2004 helped expand and develop Roaring Brook as it became part of Holtzbrinck USA (now Macmillan). Brodie left Roaring Brook in 2007 and she became a freelance career as an editor, writing instructor/coach, and “book doctor.”