Another executive will depart Penguin shortly. EVP of business operations Doug Whiteman will leave the company as of January 3 to become chief administrative officer of Acelero Learning, an early childhood education company focused on improving the delivery of Head Start services locally. Penguin Random House’s Madeline McIntosh wrote in a memo, “As much as we are all sorry to see him leave after thirty great years of outstanding contributions and service, this move will not come as a surprise to the friends and colleagues who know of Doug’s longstanding philanthropic contributions.”
Leslie Stoker will be leaving Abrams, where she is vp, publishing director, lifestyle, at the end of the year to pursue opportunities as a consultant and agent. She can be contacted at lstoker02@gmail.com.
As reported by Publishing Trends, Norton director of digital strategy and marketing Peter Kay is leaving to start a children’s digital media company, Infinite Fermata. He calls it “a new publishing company that builds ebooks and apps for kids, based on great works of music.” They also note that Cathy Gruhn has joined Little, Brown as associate director of lifestyle publicity.