Amanda Close, senior v-p, children's sales and strategic marketing development, at Penguin Random House, is stepping down at the end of June to spend more time with her family and to devote more energy to her own creative projects. Close joined Bertelsmann in 2001, moved to Random House in 2003, and has had leadership positions in sales, operations, digital development, and corporate marketing.
In an announcement to staff, chief revenue officer Jaci Updike praised Close for, in part, "a track record driving teams through innovation and change: initiating our first direct-to-consumer initiative (which then grew into our current corporate marketing team); founding and nurturing the first cross-divisional marketing task force to explore what scale meant in the context of our industry; negotiating early e-book partnerships; and exploring how to get the most value out of commerce and marketing partners. The list of experiments, tools, and programs that she and her teams have incubated is far-reaching: marketing technology, Facebook labs, social commerce, and gifting, Brightly (our online children's program), consumer data collection and usage, and demand-driven publishing, to name just a few...
"You won't be surprised to know that I tried hard to talk Amanda into staying. She has been a crucial go-to adviser for me over many years, and I will very much miss her brilliant insights, her unfailing good humor--and the way she makes all of us just a little happier for having her in the room."