NEWS

Kristin Cochrane Named CEO of Penguin Random House Canada

Dear Colleagues,

Since 2015 KRISTIN COCHRANE has served as President and Publisher of Penguin Random House Canada, working closely with CEO Brad Martin, who announced his retirement today. It gives me great pleasure to share with you that Kristin will succeed Brad as CEO of Penguin Random House Canada, reporting to me, effective July 1, 2018. She will also join our Global Executive Committee.

Kristin’s passion for and understanding of our company began in December 2005, when, ten years into her promising career, she was appointed Associate Publisher of Doubleday Canada, having previously been Sales Director, National Accounts, at HarperCollins Canada. Over the next thirteen years, as she took on more and more responsibility for the publishing groups, her deep know-how of the marketplace and creative instincts helped her to effectively balance and broaden the literary and commercial sides of our publishing programs.

As a leader, Kristin has an impressive track record of mentoring and empowering her publishing teams to make our iconic Canadian imprints even more successful. Her focus on creating and enhancing the distinct identity and direction for each of our imprints, while sharing best practices across them, has been instrumental in helping to make Penguin Random House Canada the publishing powerhouse it is today. During her tenure, the team in Canada has celebrated wins for its authors of the Giller Prize three of the last four years, the Booker Prize, a Nobel last year for Kazuo Ishiguro and for Canada’s treasured Alice Munro in 2013. Her close relationships with a wide range of authors, coupled with her extensive connections with industry peers and agents in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., have solidified her reputation as one of the industry’s most admired and respected publishers. In fact, alongside many of the authors she publishes, she has been recognized on Toronto Life’s “50 Most Influential List” three times, and was recently featured in the book “Canada 150 Women.”

As CEO, Kristin will set and implement the day-to-day and long-term publishing and business strategy for our Canadian company. She will now oversee the Sales, Finance, Operations, HR, Communications, Marketing and Publicity groups and functions, while continuing to guide the publishing programs she has brilliantly developed.

Over the coming weeks, Kristin will be working with Brad to ensure a smooth transition for July 1. I am looking forward to working closely with Kristin in her new role to build upon and further enhance the strengths of our successful Canadian company.

Please join me in congratulating Kristin on her promotion.

Yours,

Markus Dohle
Chief Executive Officer
Penguin Random House