Hachette UK announces the creation of a new trade publishing structure and additions to its Board

David Shelley, CEO Hachette UK, today announces the Managing Directors of Hachette’s Adult Trade Publishing Divisions – Jon Butler of Quercus, Nick Davies of John Murray Press, Mari Evans of Headline, Katie Espiner of Orion, Charlie King of Little, Brown and Carolyn Mays of Hodder & Stoughton – will join the Hachette UK board.

Jamie Hodder-Williams remains CEO of Hodder & Stoughton and Trade Publishing Director with particular responsibility for international collaboration. He will focus on a new growth plan for Hodder & Stoughton which includes creating a new business, alongside Hodder, to cater for the huge appetite for stories in the widest variety of formats – from pure digital eBooks to audiobooks, podcasts and new forms of storytelling. He will recruit a new team with digital and audio experience from inside and outside the book industry for this, as yet unnamed, business.

Carolyn Mays, Managing Director of Hodder & Stoughton, will continue to report to Jamie. Jon Butler, Nick Davies and Mari Evans will join Charlie King and Katie Espiner in reporting directly to David Shelley.

David Shelley says, ‘I am really happy to be welcoming the talented Managing Directors of all our divisions to the Hachette UK Board alongside Jamie Hodder-Williams and changing the structure to give each division more creative autonomy and ensuring they have the backing of a modern central infrastructure. Carolyn, Charlie, Jon, Katie, Mari and Nick have all contributed hugely to the business in recent years and I am looking forward to working with them, alongside the existing members of the Board, on delivering a bright future for us. We need to be dynamic and to change with the market, and I am confident that these promotions will mean that we have the right group of people leading our companies – and that they will help deliver the very best results for our authors, illustrators and business partners.

‘I am also pleased to announce that we will be building up Hodder & Stoughton, one of our biggest divisions, further under Jamie Hodder-Williams’ leadership and investing in a new acquiring team to sit in that division. He, Carolyn and the Hodder team have been responsible for some of the biggest bestsellers in the UK of recent years and I am excited about the potential the new structure will give them to build a new business with a variety of new authors and help them find a wide readership.’

In further changes, Rights Director Rebecca Folland will take on an additional role, chairing a forum of the rights directors across Hachette UK, to coordinate and share best practice. The rights directors will continue to report to their respective publishing divisions.

In order to share, support and facilitate excellent operational practice, Hachette UK is creating a single Trade Publishing Operations unit to ensure that the best information and data are accessible across the business, informing trade publishing decisions and managing the constant availability of Hachette trade titles around the world. Ben Groves-Raines, currently COO of Orion and Little, Brown, will become Publishing Operations Director to lead this team, reporting to Richard Kitson. He will also chair the Hachette UK Production Directors forum, to share best practice in production across the business.

Jonathan Paterson, Finance Director of Hodder & Stoughton, will take on additional responsibilities within the finance team, working with the trade publishers to develop new strategies in selected businesses.