Penguin New Zealand to farewell Publishing Director

After 25 years with Penguin New Zealand, Geoff Walker, Publishing Director, has announced that he will leave and move on to pursue other opportunities.

Geoff joined the company in 1985 and basically built the local publishing list from scratch. Under his direction and guidance our New Zealand local list grew to become one of the most acclaimed and respected in this country, winning pretty much every major award for outstanding fiction and non-fiction. It is due to Geoff that we include such notable authors in our stable as Patricia Grace, Lloyd Jones, Maurice Gee, Michael King and many others.

Geoff will leave Penguin at the end of 2010 and will be key in helping to set up the department to continue after his departure.

“Though we are sad to see Geoff go he is certainly leaving us in good shape. In 2009 we achieved record sales for our local publishing list and are well set up to continue this trend with the best team of publishing folk in the business.

I would like to thank Geoff for his amazing contribution over the years and to acknowledge his true professionalism and dependability, in good times and tough times. It is indeed the end of an era.”

Managing Director, Margaret Thompson

“I’ve very mixed feelings in making this decision because working with Penguin authors and their books have been the happiest times of my professional life. It’s been an incredible thrill to be associated with some of New Zealand’s best writers. But it’s time for me to change direction and try something new – and perhaps do a little less of it than a busy publishing life usually permits.

I won’t be retiring in any sense, just moving on from the corporate publishing life and doing a few things that interest me. I still plan to be around the publishing world. In the meantime, I won’t be leaving until towards the end of the year, so the transition will be a gradual one. The Penguin New Zealand publishing programme remains in extremely good heart and that’s very important to me.

I want to thank all the wonderful authors I’ve worked with. It’s been a joy to be your publisher.”

Geoff Walker