People 7/9 - Publishers Lunch

Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe

Christian Jünger has been named CEO, starting October 1. He has been managing director at Rowohlt since 2021. He will also join Penguin Random House’s Global Executive Committee.

Jünger succeeds longtime head Thomas Rathnow, who first stepped aside temporarily for personal reasons, and then formally left the company in April. Interim co-ceos Britta Egetemeier and Thomas Pichler will continue to lead the publisher until Jünger starts.

PRH CEO Nihar Malaviya notes that at Rowohlt, “Chrisian has not only improved their financial performance; he has also created an environment for collaboraive leadership with the other members of their board.” Also, “He possesses a keen understanding of the retail side of our business, due to the years he spent working in Amazon’s book division as Head of Vendor Management.”

HBG and Hachette UK

Hachette Book Group svp & chief information officer Mike Ballanco is retiring on September 27, after nine years with the company (during which tenure he oversaw the replacement of 85 percent of the company’s legacy applications).

Hachette UK CIO Brendan Goss will be promoted on September 1 to group chief information officer, leading the IT teams in the UK and US, continuing to report to Richard Kitson.

Additional, HBG’s chief technology officer Puneet Kukkal is promoted to SVP and CIO, and Hachette UK IT director Rob Forster moves up to CIO there.

Holt

Emily Griffin joins as vp, editorial director for fiction. She was previously vp, executive editor at Harper.

Harper One

Stephanie Duncan Smith will join as senior editor on July 15. Smith was previously executive editor at Baker Books.

Astra House

Tara Sharma has joined as associate editor. She was previously assistant editor at FSG.

Maya Raiford Cohen has joined as associate editor. She was previously associate editor at Zando.

Orbit

Oliver Wehner has joined as associate publicist.

Chronicle Books

Linette Kim, has joined as senior manager, school & library marketing and children’s publicity.

Meghan Clarke has joined as controller.

Book of the Month

Suzannah Bentley has joined as manager, audio & editorial. She was previously at Janklow & Nesbit and Scribd.

HG Literary

VP of international rights Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts has left the rights position to work exclusively on her domestic clients and retains the title of vice president.

Ellen Goff has been promoted to agent/international rights manager, children’s and YA.

Alex Reubert joins as agent/international rights manager, adult. He was previously an agent at Sanford J Greenburger Associates

Jonathan Cobb has been promoted to agent.