Ian Chapman has been promoted to chief executive and publisher, S&S UK and International

18.07.13 | Bookseller News Team

Simon & Schuster UK m.d. and c.e.o. Ian Chapman has been promoted to chief executive and publisher for S&S UK and International.

The development comes alongside promotions for Suzanne Baboneau, Ingrid Selberg, Rahul Srivastava and James Horobin. However executive director Kerr MacRae has resigned his position at the company.
Carolyn Reidy, president and c.e.o. of S&S worldwide, said: “Under Ian’s direction we have earned the respect and admiration of the author and agent community on both sides of the Atlantic, as well our colleagues in the international publishing world, as we have evolved into a house that can win major acquisitions in competition with other publishers, achieve sales growth for up-and-coming authors on a book-by-book basis, and execute publishing campaigns with flair and imagination." 
She added: “Ian has also been deeply involved in the transition to digital publishing, and digital book sales are beginning to accelerate in the UK and in other international markets.”

Reidy said that in his new role Chapman would oversee “an even greater level of coordination and growth across all our international companies” as he continued to apply his publishing and leadership skills across all aspects of the UK and International companies. Chapman has had responsibility for S&S Australia since 2010, adding S&S India in 2011. 

In a raft of further promotions, publishing director Suzanne Baboneau, praised by Chapman as "a brilliant, versatile editor and publisher",  becomes m.d. of the Adult Publishing Division.

S&S Publisher Ingrid Selberg, described as having expanded "the depth, breadth and visibility of our children's publishing", is similarly promoted to become m.d. of the Children’s Publishing Division.
Group sales and marketing director James Horobin becomes group sales director, taking on responsibility for all sales, including third party publishing and distribution clients, and co-ordination of sales among the UK, Australia, India and the US, and guiding the growth of digital sales. Meanwhile a new role of marketing and publicity director has been created, to be filled shortly. 

Additionally, Rahul Srivastava—praised with his team for having "consistently outperformed our projections"—has been promoted to m.d. S&S India. Srivastava will in the future be developing "a highly selective local publishing programme" for the India market.

Meanwhile MacRae, who joined S&S in 2010 after 25 years at Hachette, has resigned his executive director role. Chapman said in a statement: "Simon & Schuster UK continues to grow its market share impressively and consistently, and Kerr’s input has been invaluable in strengthening the company’s relationships with the UK and international trade. He leaves with everyone’s grateful thanks for all he has done on the company’s behalf and the warmest of good wishes for his future endeavours."

The changes follow hard on the heels of February's restructure of the Simon & Schuster management team, which saw Baboneau gaining responsibility for the illustrated and sports lists, while MacRae added publishing strategy and brand development to his executive director role. That restructure also saw Russell Evans join S&S as commercial director.

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