People Round-Up, Mid-August 2015

PEOPLE

Kathleen Schmidt has been named VP, Director of Marketing and Publicity at Perseus imprint Running Press at the publisher’s Philadelphia office. Schmidt joined the company in 2013 as publicity director for Weinstein Books.

Margaret Milnes has left her position at Running Press, where she was Senior Director, Brand Management, to relaunch her licensing and brand development consulting business. She can be reached at margaretmilnesNY@gmail.com.

Karen Fink joined Putnam as Associate Director, Publicity. She was previously Deputy Director of Publicity at Grand Central Publishing. Maya Ziv joined Dutton as Executive Editor. She was most recently Senior Editor at HarperCollins.

Samantha Metzger joined Simon & Schuster Children’s as Subsidiary Rights Manager. She was Assistant Subsidiary Rights Manager at Macmillan Children’s.

Elizabeth Schaefer is now Editor, Licensed Publishing at Scholastic. She was previously Associate Editor at Disney Publishing Worldwide.

Matt Wise was named Director of Publishing for Blumhouse Books. He was previously Agent at Foundry Literary + Media.

Judy Heiblum is leaving Sterling Lord Literistic after 8 years to become a freelance Editor and Consultant. She can be reached at jheiblum@gmail.com.

In scouting, Anabelle Saks joined Maria B. Campbell Associates as Senior Scout, working with Warner Bros. Feature, WBTV, New Line, and Horizon and Rachel Horowitz joined as Senior Scout for US Children’s. . . As previously mentioned in an update to the Early August Round-Up, Elisabeth Watson will join Aram Fox as Scout at the end of August. She is currently Subsidiary Rights Associate at Scribner/Touchstone.

Kristen Reach joined Kenyon Review as Associate Editor. She was most recently Editor at Melville House.

Kate Weiss joined Chelsea Green Publishing as Assistant Trade Sales Manager. She was Events Coordinator for Carmichael’s Bookstore.

Ayanna Coleman will join Behind the Book as Director of Development at the end of the month. She was most recently Senior Director of Programming, Partnerships, and Development at the Children’s Book Council.

Niki Marion joined Odyssey Bookshop as Children’s Department Director. She was most recently Marketing Assistant and One City One Story Project Manager at the Boston Book Festival.

PROMOTIONS

John Sargent was named EVP of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, where he will manage the global trade publishing business as well as the US higher education. Markus Schunk, Managing Director of Holtzbrinck Digital, will take over responsibility for the digital business units while Head of Digital and Technologies Volker Smid was take on a new, yet-to-be-announced management role at one of Holtzbrinck’s digital companies. Meanwhile, Springer Nature’s Chief Science Officer Annette Thomas has left the Holtzbrinck Executive Board.

Penguin Random House promoted Randi Rosenkranz to the newly created position of VP, Sales Department, Joyce Slaughter to VP, Director, Customer Services, Jane Brown-Wise to VP, Director, Data Management, and Tracey Presley to VP, Transportation. Bill Adams was promoted to SVP, Associate General Counsel and Yuki Hirose to VP, Associate General Counsel. Kristen Fleming was promoted to Director, Online and Digital Business Development. Additionally, Caroline Riordan was promoted to Director, Barnes & Noble, Penguin Adult Sales and Lynn Kovach to Director, Barnes & Noble, Random House Adult Sales. Crown/Broadway/Hogarth/Tim Duggan Books promoted Sarah Pekdemir to Assistant Director, Marketing, Kayleigh George to Senior Marketing Manager, and Danielle Crabtree to Marketing Manager. Angie Venezia was promoted to Publicity Manager at Vintage Books and Anchor Books. Liza Cassity was promoted to Publicity Manager at Dutton.

Kim Highland was promoted to Director, Client Services for Perseus Distribution.

Scholastic promoted David Ascher to SVP, Finance and Strategic Initiatives, JoAnne Mojica to VP, Publishing Operations, Scholastic Trade, Anamika Bhatnagar to Associate Publisher of Pilkey Publishing and Scholastic Inc. and Sheila Marie Everett to Publicity Director. Additionally, Rick DeMonico is now Senior Art Director, Elizabeth Herzog is Art Director, Nonfiction and Branches.

Lea Beresford is now Senior Editor at Bloomsbury USA.

National Geographic Books promoted Hilary Black to Deputy Editor, Bridget English to Senior Editor, and Anne Smyth to Project Manager.

Princeton University Press promoted Melissa Burton to Director of Exhibits, Kim Williams to UK International Rights Director, and Steven Peter to Project & Systems Manager.

Danielle Sanchez is now Publicity Manager at InkSlinger PR.

DULY NOTED

Book digital marketing firm FSB Associates is opening a second office in Carlsbad, CA. Its founders Fauzia Burke and John Burke will split their time between the Carlsbad office and the Basking Ridge, NJ office.