People 6/26

Michael Roney has been appointed non-executive chairman in advance of the company’s expected IPO. Roney has been non-executive chair of Next since 2017, and was previously CEO of Bunzl plc from 2005 to 2016.

Beth Conte is promoted to vice president, marketing production. Marketing production senior manager Grainne Cestaro; marketing production managers Patrick Murphy and Andi Paul; and display production manager Eric Swanson will now report to Conte.

Hollie Michaels has joined as literary manager.

Canongate announced a new quarterly payment structure for its authors. At the end of June, the publisher will make its first quarterly royalty payments for the period January to March 2026. The initiative applies to all book contracts and is led by head of finance Laura Wilkie.

“The payment to our authors (and their agents) of their hard-earned royalties four times a year as opposed to just twice is something that we have been wanting to do for some time. And with Virtusales’ development of its enhanced royalty system, we knew that it would be possible to switch our accounting to these more regular payments if the will was there,” says Canongate ceo Jamie Byng in a release. “Everyone at Canongate is thrilled at this exciting step as we all recognize how indebted we are to our authors and know how much this change will be appreciated by them.”