Kobo has hired Pieter Swinkels as Director of Publisher and Industry Relations for Europe, leading the company’s expansion there. He was associate publisher of De Bezige Bij and publisher of Cargo in Holland. In his new role at Kobo, Swinkels will be responsible for driving forward Kobo’s ambitious expansion into the European market. The company notes “the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands currently have the highest European Kobo user counts, but the company is quickly expanding its audience in Spain, Portugal and Italy.”
The Gail Ross Literary Agency has changed its name to The Ross Yoon Agency. Agency president Gail Ross and Howard Yoon have worked together for 18 years. As part of the change their agency URL and e-mail addresses now go to rossyoon.com.
At Merriam-Webster, Jane Mairs has joined the company in the new position of director of English language learning publishing. She was previously senior commissioning editor for Cambridge University Press. Meghan Lieberwirth has been promoted to director of marketing, and Matthew Dube has moved over to business development manager.