People Round-Up, Early May 2016

PEOPLE

Leslie Gelbman joined St. Martin’s Press as Executive Editor-at-Large. She was previously President at Berkley. This move comes shortly after Nora Roberts, whom Gelbman edits, signed with SMP.

David Hirshey will leave his position as Publisher at HarperCollins in mid-June after 18 years with the company.

Micki Nuding retired as Senior Editor at Gallery Books after more than 25 years in book publishing.

Mary Rowles will retire from her position as Publisher Development Manager at Independent Publishers Group after 15 years with the company. Richard T. Williams was named her successor.

Brian Haley is now Senior Director of Technology at Open Road Integrated Media. He was previously Engineering Manager at Crain Communication. Additionally, Austin Walker joined as Senior Sales Manager. He was National Account Manager at Oxford University Press.

Michael Barson joined Poisoned Pen Press as Publicity Director. He was previously Senior Executive of Publicity at Putnam.

Trinity McFadden joined Zondervan as Senior Manager of Publicity for Bibles and CARR (church, academic, reference, and reflective). She was most recently a freelance editor.

Emily Murdock Baker launched the independent editing service EMB Editorial. She was Associate Editor at Penguin Books.

Dustin Kurtz is now Manager of Books & Books’ Cayman Islands store. He was most recently Marketing Manager at Melville House and before that was a Bookseller at McNally Jackson and WORD Bookstore.

PROMOTIONS

At Simon & Schuster, Trish Todd returned to Touchstone as VP, Executive Editor. She was Editor-in-Chief at Touchstone until 2010, when she moved over to Simon & Schuster. Scribner promoted Jessica Yu to Publicist and Gallery promoted Diana Velasquez to Senior Marketing Manager. In the education and library marketing department, Candace Greene McManus was promoted to Senior Marketing Manager and Anthony Parisi to Marketing Manager.

Dan Sanicola was named VP, Director of Ebook Production and Operations at Penguin Random House. He will co-lead the new company-wide ebook development and operations group with Liisa McCloy-Kelly, who is the VP, Director of Ebook Product Development and Innovation.

Abrams promoted Paul Colarusso to Associate Director of Marketing, Adult Books.

Philip Rappaport was promoted to VP, Editorial Director at Open Road.

Chronicle Books promoted Joya Anthony to Subsidiary Rights Manager.

Kourtney Joy was promoted to Publicity Director at Ulysses Press.

Sourcebooks promoted Brittany Vibbert to Associate Art Director, Rachel Gilmer to Senior Production Editor at Heather Hall to Senior Production Editor.

At university presses, Temple University Press promoted Aaron Javsicas to Editor-in-Chief. . . Gianna Mosser was promoted to Editor-in-Chief of Northwestern University Press.

DULY NOTED

Barnes & Noble Founder and Executive Chairman Leonard Riggio will retire in September. He will keep his seat on the board and continue as the company’s largest individual shareholder.

James G. Neal was named President-Elect of the American Library Association. After one year as President-Elect, he will become President at the 2017 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. He is the University Library Emeritus at Columbia University.

The UJA-Federation of New York will honor OverDrive President and CEO Steve Potash and Penguin Random House Emeritus Executive VP of Corporate Communications Stuart Applebaum at its Publishing Division Dinner on Tuesday, May 24^th at The Pierre in New York City. The event will be hosted by Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing star Ryan Serhant.