After under 3 years in the post, Follett ceo Mary Lee Schneider is departing, to be replaced by Ray Griffith. He spent 20 years at Ace Hardware, where he was president and ceo until April 2013. The company said, “The son of a public school teacher and grade school principal who began his career managing a local retail store, Ray has the right experience and strategic vision to drive Follett to continued success.” In the announcement, Schneider comments: “I have been proud to be a part of the Follett story for the past 14 years, first as a member of the board and then as president and CEO. Follett gave me a great opportunity, and it has been a privilege to play a part in Follett’s success. While I am moving on to the next adventure, I look forward to watching the company’s continued success from a different vantage point.”
Monica Odom has joined Bradford Literary Agency as a literary agent, focusing on pop culture, illustrated/graphic design, food and cooking, humor, history, and social issues, as well as select literary ad upmarket commercial fiction. She was previously an associate agent and manager at Liza Dawson Associates.
Charles Regan will join Perseus Academic on May 11 in the newly created position of academic director, client services, reporting to Heidi Sachner. Most recently he was manager, sales development for global research and education at Wiley.
At Claire McKinney PR, Larissa Ackerman has been promoted to associate publicist.
Honors
Paul Theroux will receive the Royal Medal from the Royal Geographic Society “for the encouragement of geographical discovery through travel writing.”
Fundraising
As part of their transition to a nonprofit organization, McSweeney’s has gone to Kickstarter, seeking to raise $150,000 from fans.
Distribution
Lerner Publisher Services will distribute Hutton Grove, the new children’s book imprint from Kuperard Publishing, in the US and Canada beginning August 2015.