Three Random House Group senior executives are being given additional responsibilities beyond their existing duties. They will continue to report to president & publisher Gina Centrello, who noted: "This year, we will learn from the past, focus on the present, and target future growth areas to increase our market share."
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| David Drake | |
David Drake, previously executive v-p, publisher, has been promoted to president, Crown. In this role, he will retain responsibility for charting the strategic publishing direction for Crown. He also will continue to partner with Aaron Wehner and the teams at Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press to develop further the Crown-affiliated imprints. Additionally, Drake will head selected projects across the group.
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| Scott Shannon | |
Scott Shannon, who has been executive v-p, publisher of Del Rey, has been additionally appointed director, strategy. He will focus on identifying opportunities for immediate and long-term front list and backlist growth across all publishing platforms and formats. Shannon and his team will work with publishers and marketers to craft new-category growth plans, create new business metric reporting to adjust to changing consumer trends, and collaborate with marketing and sales to help develop new programs and processes.
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| Kara Welsh | |
Kara Welsh is promoted to president of the newly renamed Ballantine Books, comprised of the Ballantine, Bantam, Dell, and Delacorte imprints. She will lead Ballantine's growth strategy, which will focus on repositioning the Bantam and Dell imprints to continue to meet the evolving tastes of readers and capitalize on newly emerging categories.
Jennifer Hershey, formerly editor-in-chief of Ballantine, has been promoted to senior v-p, publisher of Ballantine Books. She will work with Welsh "to help build the Ballantine, Bantam and Dell/Delacorte lists as we look to grow the scope of the lists and categories we publish in."
In other changes, Avideh Bashirrad is being promoted to senior v-p, deputy publisher. Andy Ward, Random House executive v-p, publisher, said, "In her time at Random House, as she has risen from marketing manager to marketing director to deputy publisher, Avideh has demonstrated an unfailing dedication to our books and a commitment to publish them as creatively as possible."
Tricia Narwani is now editor-in-chief, Del Rey Books. Since joining the imprint in 2005, Narwani has created a wide-ranging list of authors and, as editorial director, "has led Del Rey's growth into both a category-leading and category-redefining imprint," the company said.
Keith Clayton has been promoted to v-p, publishing director, licensed publishing, where he will oversee the licensed publishing program for the Random House Group. He will also continue in his current role as v-p, deputy publisher for Del Rey.
Gillian Blake has been promoted to senior v-p, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Crown. Blake joined the company in 2018 from Henry Holt, where she had been editor-in-chief since 2011 after serving in editorial roles at Scribner, Bloomsbury and HarperCollins.