Carolyn Bresh will join Quarto as chief financial officer starting April 9, and also join the board as executive director. Previously, she was a partner at consultancy Everymind. CEO Marcus Leaver said, “She brings considerable sector and international experience, an increased commercial focus as well as strategic planning and analysis–all of which we need as an ambitious pure-play publishing business.”
Also at Quarto, Nanette Gibb has joined as group director of people. She has worked in human resources roles for 25 years, including at Hearst Magazines UK and for CBRE UK.
Anne-Lise Spitzer has joined the Philip Spitzer Literary Agency as executive vice president and literary agent. She was previously vice president and director of marketing at Knopf, Pantheon, and Schocken Books.
Tim Murray has joined Bonnier Publishing USA as vice president of sales for all children’s imprints, including Little Bee Books and Sizzle Press. Previously, he was senior vice president of business development and sales at BookShout and director of premium, corporate, custom & proprietary sales at Simon & Schuster.
Katie Henderson Adams was promoted to senior editor at Liveright Publishing.
Slate staff writer Katy Waldman will join the New Yorker next month, where she will continue to write about books and contribute “regular essays on culture, language, and the politics of language” to the magazine’s website.
Aram Fox has begun scouting for Dutch publishing group Overamstel, including its Hollands Diep, Lebowski, House of Books, Carrera and Horizon imprints.
The National Book Foundation elected three new members to its board of directors: Lucia Ferreira, managing director and head of the nonprofit department at Russell Reynolds Associates; Michael Lynton, chairman of the board at Snap; and Michelle Weiner, head of the books department at Creative Artists Agency.
The MacDowell Colony announced the 85 recipients of winter-spring fellowships, including 15 fiction writers and 11 nonfiction writers.
Distribution
In a significant shift, Regnery Publishing will move their distribution from Two Rivers/Ingram Publisher Services to Simon & Schuster starting July 1. Regnery will continue to handle sales of its titles in the US, while Simon & Schuster will handle sales in Canada and export markets.
Gallic Books will be distributed internationally by Ingram Publisher Services.
Financing
China’s Tencent has led a $51 million round of funding for Wattpad. Bloomberg says the company is valued at about $400 million, and has raised $118 million in financing to date.