Among the first named layoffs at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is svp, associate trade group publisher and business development Laurie Brown, who has left the company.
Ingram Content Group has added Kelly Arnold as chief legal offficer (she was general counsel at U.S. Xpress Enterprises) and Deanna Steele as chief information technology officer (she was group vice president, IT – Brands at Ascena Retail Group).
Nancy Sheppard has joined St. Martin’s as marketing director. Previously she was director of creative marketing services at Penguin Adult.
Josh Redlich has been promoted to publicist at Random House Children’s.
Laura Kaplan has returned to the Harper Children’s publicity/school and library team as publicity manager from Disney Publishing. She previously worked at Harper Children’s from 2008 to 2010.
CEO at Digital River David Dobson has joined the board of Wiley. CEO Mark Allin says in the announcement, “David brings a wealth of global experience in delivering successful digital solutions. We are pleased to have his counsel as Wiley continues to expand its digital solutions and services for our customers in research and learning.”
Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance has left Silicon Valley (where he worked for Peter Thiel’s investment company) and relocated to Columbus, OH. Vance is working for Steve Case’s Revolution, making venture capital investments in places that have been overlooked by most investors. “A lot of these areas have been left behind and it does add to the problems and makes it harder to solve them. There is a lot of energy and untapped resources in these cities,” he tells the WSJ.
Distribution
Berrett-Koehler will move their sales and distribution from Ingram Publisher Services to Penguin Random House Publisher Services in January 2018. president Steve Piersanti says in the announcement, “We have enjoyed a strong network of distributors in the U.S. and internationally who have been great partners with us. Moving now to PRHPS will allow BK to continue expanding the sales and distribution of our titles around the world.”