The Hachette Livre group announces the creation of a new management structure for its English language markets

Arnaud Lagardère, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Livre group today announced the creation of a new English language management structure, to strengthen the longstanding excellent collaboration between Hachette Book Group (HBG) and Hachette UK (HUK).

Under this new structure, Hachette UK CEO, David Shelley, will take on the CEO role for both Hachette Book Group and Hachette UK, reporting into Hachette Livre’s Deputy CEO, Stéphanie Ferran and Chairman and CEO of Hachette Livre, Arnaud Lagardère.
Michael Pietsch will retire from his role as HBG’s CEO and take on a new role as Chairman at HBG. These UK and US leadership changes will be effective January 1, 2024.

Arnaud Lagardère, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Livre, declared : “Thanks to this new structure at the helm of our publishing activities in the US and UK, Hachette Livre will be ideally positioned to pursue its ambitions to be a global leader by bringing business closer together and unlocking new opportunities for growth in those strategic markets. The success that David Shelley has built at Hachette UK is both inspiring and impressive, and he is the best person to create a strong and unified English language publishing team. I know that, thanks to Michael Pietsch, Hachette Book Group is the best home for our authors and they will continue to prosper in the care of David Shelley.”

David Shelley, Chief Executive Officer of Hachette UK, said: “I’m incredibly honoured to be given this opportunity to lead Hachette Book Group as well as Hachette UK and to work with our talented teams on both sides of the Atlantic to bring the two companies closer together – to help each learn from the other, and to continually reach new readers. I’d like to pay special tribute to Michael Pietsch on his retirement, as he has been a key figure for me over the years. As well as being a legendary editor, publisher, and CEO, he is one of the most kind and thoughtful people in our industry. I am extremely pleased that he will be remaining as Chairman of Hachette Book Group for the coming year, and I look forward to working closely with him very much.”

Hachette Livre is a subsidiary of Lagardère SA and the world’s third-largest mainstream publishing group (trade and educational). With revenue of €2,748 million in 2022, it is the market leader in France, number two in the UK, third in Spain and fourth in the US (in trade publishing). The Group comprises over 200 imprints which together publish around 15,000 new titles each year in a dozen languages (mainly French, English and Spanish). It covers all segments of the mainstream publishing market: general fiction, nonfiction, paperbacks, children’s and YA books, illustrated books, travel guides, textbooks, study guides and partworks
https://www.hachette.com/