Mark Gompertz will join Skyhorse Publishing as group editorial director on November 9. Most recently he was creative director, content extensions for Hearst Magazines. Founder and publisher Tony Lyons says in the announcement, “With Mark’s rare combination of editorial acumen and publishing know-how, he will help take Skyhorse to new heights.” Skyhorse says it is projecting sales for 2015 of $43 million. If they fulfill those expectations, sales will be up 30 percent compared to 2014 (meaning sales were about $33 million last year).
Former ceo and chairman of pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, Sidney Taurel will take over as chairman of the Pearson board on January 1, after Glen Moreno steps down. Taurel serves on the boards of both IBM and McGraw Hill Financial, and is senior advisor at global investment bank Moelis & Co.
Natasha Simons has been promoted to associate editor for Gallery and Threshold Editions.
At Regan Arts, Gregory Henry has joined as assistant publicity director (he was at Harper Collins), and Gwyneth Stansfield has joined as publicity manager (she was at Scribner).
Sophie Vershbow has joined Random House as publicity social media manager. Previously she was a digital content strategist at Verbal+Visual. In addition, Christine Mykityshyn, Nicole Morano, and Poonam Mantha have been promoted to publicist, while Emily Isayeff moves up to associate publicist.
In the international sales team run out of Hachette UK, Simon McArt becomes head of sales, India and North America. As noted earlier, Matt Cowdery has relocated to London as head of sales, Africa and the Middle East, overseeing the Dubai office and managing sales to South Africa. Abigail Mitchell becomes head of sales, Europe, and all three will continue to report to Hachette’s group international sales director, Ben Wright. International sales executive Laura Ricchetti will report to Mitchell and replaces Andrew Hally, who has moved to the Little Brown UK and Orion head office sales team.
At Goodreads, Cynthia Shannon has been promoted to author marketing specialist.
Joan Lee has joined Insight Editions as director of marketing. She has previously had marketing positions at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s and Disney.
Digital Distribution
Vearsa has added Abrams as a client.