Personnel

At Chronicle Books, Amy Treadwell has been promoted to editor, Food and Drink, and Ursula Cary has been named editor in the One and Others group, moving from Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Robert C. Nelson is joining Baker & Taylor as executive v-p, strategic business development, a new position. Previously he was president of UCT Forestry Group. Yale University Press has named William Frucht Executive Editor for Political Science and International Relations. Frucht joins from Basic Books, where he was VP and Executive Editor.

Bertelsmann DirectGroup announced yesterday that Najafi Companies has completed the closing of its acquisition of the North American book clubs and that effective immediately, the company’s new corporate name is Direct Brands, Inc. Consumer brand names such as Columbia House and BMG will remain unaffected. Oxford University Press has appointed Scott Kuem as Senior Vice President and CFO. Previously he was with the Neilsen Company. Also at OUP, Peter Berkery will be joining as Vice President and Law Publisher from Wolters Kluwer, effective August 18, and Julie Marshall has been named Retail Sales Director of the company. At Rizzoli, David […]

Laura Geringer, publisher of the eponymous Harper Children’s imprint for 17 years (and a Harper employee since 1980), “has announced her decision to leave her position” at the end of the month. Susan Katz says in her memo Geringer “looks forward to having more time to pursue her career as a writer, to devote her energies to the development of a new business with the capability of delivering story content on multiple platforms, and to channel more time into First Book.” The imprint is best known for picture books by William Joyce, and the IF YOU GIVE A … series […]

David Morton, who has run Rizzoli’s architecture program since 1987, has been promoted to the new position of associate publisher, architecture.   At St. Martin’s, Tom Stouras has been promoted and is adding supply chain management to his current responsibilities, taking the new title of vp, supply chain and sales operations. Steve Faber is being promoted to inventory director, supply chain and Debbie Derevjanik will become director of analysis and forecasting, supply chain, both reporting to Tom Stouras. Alison Indrisano has been appointed president and ceo of National Geographic School Publishing, including Hampton-Brown, which it acquired in 2006, starting in early […]

Steve Rubin and Maria Campbell threw a party last night for former HarperCollins ceo Jane Friedman on the roof Rubin’s apartment building, attended by longtime publishing colleagues and, apparently, a few publishing reporters. The guests surprised Friedman by wearing printed Jane Friedman masks. She called it her “transition party” and noted: “What I’m going to say –and this is it– is I am not done, and I am not done by a long shot.” But there’s no report on what she is transitioning to yet.Observer