Finance chiefs join new Penguin Random House board
Several finance executives to sit on the Pearson/Bertelsmann joint venture
THE MERGER of consumer publishing giants Penguin and Random House has seen a slew of finance executives join the new board.
The joint venture between the consumer units of Pearson and Bertelsmann will incorporate a number of finance chiefs from across the two parent companies.
The chairman of Penguin Random house will be John Makinson, a former finance director of Pearson. He steps down from the Pearson board as part of the process. Makinson began his career as a financial journalist at the Financial Times.
Penguin Group CFO Coram Williams also joins the new board. Williams previously held financial positions at Pearson and International Education. He began his career testing cars for motoring magazine Autocar, then moved to Arthur Andersen.
Philip Hoffman, executive vice president of corporate finance, strategy and company secretary at Pearson, joins the board. He is a former Pearson North America CFO and Penguin Group CFO/COO.
Another finance chief on the board is Dr Judith Hartmann, CFO of Bertelsmann. She previously served in senior finance roles at The Walt Disney Company and in senior finance and strategy roles for GE Healthcare. In 2009, she was appointed Chief Financial Officer of GE Healthcare Latin America and then held the same position at the GE Group Germany from 2011, joining Bertelsmann the following year.
Bertelsmann will own 53% of the company, with the balance owned by Pearson. The group will employ more than 10,000 people across the world, publishing 15,000 new titles every year.
The new venture intends to use its greater resources to invest in ‘rich’ content, new digital publishing models and emerging markets.