As part of its new structure as a standalone company, Simon & Schuster has formed a board of directors whose "collective experience in digital innovation, global business strategy, and deep understanding of the publishing ecosystem will be instrumental in our growth and success as an independent publisher," S&S CEO Jonathan Karp said.
Besides Karp, the board includes three executives from KKR, the private equity firm that bought S&S in August and made it a freestanding company; Madeline McIntosh, the former CEO of Penguin Random House, which tried to buy S&S; a former TikTok executive; and a former Disney executive.
The KKR board members, all of whom also serve on the board of OverDrive, which KKR owns, are:
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Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the S&S board and chairman of media at KKR. He is a former Random House and Bertelsmann executive as well as former chairman of the Association of American Publishers.
Ted Oberwager, a partner who leads the gaming, entertainment, media, and sports departments in KKR's Americas private equity business.
Chresten Knaff, director at KKR and a member of the firm's media and software industry teams.
The other directors are:
Madeline McIntosh, who, beginning in 1994, worked for Random House and Bantam Doubleday Dell for 14 years in a variety of roles, starting in new media and including publisher of the audio publishing division and senior v-p, director of adult sales. In 2008, she left Random House to be Amazon's director of Kindle content acquisition for Europe, with headquarters in Luxembourg. A year later she returned to Random House as president of sales, operations, and digital, and then was promoted several times before becoming CEO of PRH U.S. in 2018. McIntosh currently serves as president of the board of directors for Poets & Writers
V Pappas, who had a five-year tenure at TikTok, most recently as chief operating officer and earlier was global interim head and general manager for North America, Australia, and New Zealand. Before that, Pappas served as the global head of creative insights at YouTube. She currently serves on the board of trustees for the Paley Center for Media.
Kareem Daniel, who had an 18-year tenure at the Walt Disney Company, most recently as chairman of Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution. Earlier, he served as president of consumer products, games and publishing, where he led product development, licensing, e-commerce, video games, and Disney Publishing Worldwide.