He is a two-time recipient of the Bertelsmann Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurial Achievement, having won the award in both 2016 and 2022.
Previously, Jeff led the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) as Executive Director, redefining its mission and strategy. Jeff’s nearly 30-year publishing career began in the mid-1990s as CEO and President of Optimedia, an electronic publishing-solutions provider in the STM field, working with publishers such as Oxford University Press, Elsevier, and the American Medical Association.
Jeff holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He lives in Westchester with his wife, four college-aged kids, and beloved Nespresso machine, tennis racquets, and Ruby the dog.
Sanyu is a member of the Penguin Random House U.S. Board and has an Executive MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.
Allison joined the company in 2008, first as a member of the Bertelsmann Entrepreneurs Program and then in a variety of corporate and divisional roles at Random House and eventually Penguin Random House, including as Vice President, Business Development and Digital Publishing Director at the Random House Publishing Group and most recently as Senior Vice President, Director of Strategy and Finance at Penguin.
Prior to her time in publishing, Allison spent several years on Capitol Hill and on political campaigns. She served as Communications Director for U.S. Senators Paul Wellstone and Tom Harkin and as a press secretary for John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004.
Allison has a BA in Economics and Government from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two children.
A graduate of UC Berkeley (BA) and NYU (MA), David is an optimistic, creative, and entrepreneurial manager with a keen focus on international collaboration. He has led numerous notable publications for the company, including the global # 1 bestsellers BECOMING by Michelle Obama, A PROMISED LAND by Barack Obama, and, most recently, SPARE by Prince Harry.
Jen joined Penguin Young Readers in March 2009 as Vice President, Associate Publisher. Previously, Jen was Associate Publisher at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She began her career in books as a buyer for Joseph-Beth Bookseller before moving into sales at both Candlewick Press and Houghton Mifflin, where she was responsible for the wholesale channel as well as Canadian sales. She joined Harcourt in September of 2004 as VP of Sales, Children’s Books and was named VP of Sales & Marketing, Children’s Books in 2007. At the merger of Houghton Mifflin and Harcourt she became the Associate Publisher of the HMH children’s list.
Nihar began his career with Bertelsmann, Penguin Random House’s parent company, in 2001 as a participant in the Bertelsmann Entrepreneurs Program. In 2003, he moved within the group to Random House, successfully taking on a number of leadership positions resulting in his appointment as President and COO of PRH U.S. in 2019. During his tenure in publishing, Nihar spearheaded the creation of a variety of industry-first capabilities in data science, supply chain, technology, and consumer insights, and has been collaborating with colleagues to reach the widest possible audience for the company’s authors and their books across multiple formats and platforms.
As CEO, Nihar supports publishing independence, editorial autonomy, and drives the creation of competitive advantages that position the company for growth. As part of his growth strategy, he is focusing on advancing Penguin Random House’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion commitments and meeting the company’s sustainability goals.
Nihar holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the NYU Stern School of Business, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. Nihar is a member of the board of Yale University Press. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children.
Prior to joining Random House in 2012, Barbara was Adviser to Open Road Integrated Media in the area of children’s digital publishing and general strategy. She also served as Strategic Innovations Adviser to Penguin Books USA, focusing on new ventures and publishing opportunities.
Before that, Barbara was President of Scholastic’s Children’s Book Publishing and Distribution, where, for more than twenty years, she was responsible for all children’s consumer book publishing and distribution in the United States, through school-based book clubs, school-based and direct-to-home continuity programs, school-based book fairs, and the retail channel. During her tenure, she led the expansion of the business from approximately $50 million to over $1 billion in annual revenue. After acquiring J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for publication in the United States in 1998, she also led the publishing effort for six of the seven Harry Potter titles.
Barbara began her career as Sales Associate, Bantam Lecture Bureau, after having graduated from Tufts University with a BA degree in American history.
Maya has almost 30 years of experience in the publishing business. Most recently, she was President, Publishing Strategy, at Macmillan, where she worked on various aspects of the company’s development, including growth and profitability development, content development, diversity and inclusion, culture and talent.
From 2010 to 2018, she served as President and Publisher of the Crown Publishing Group U.S. at Penguin Random House LLC. She oversaw and fostered Crown’s creative and editorial vision as well as all aspects of its publishing business, including financial strategy, business development and digital strategy, publicity, marketing, production, talent retention and development. At Crown, she published bestselling and award-winning authors, such as Gillian Flynn, Erik Larson, Rebecca Skloot, Ina Garten, Yotam Ottolenghi and Susan Cain, to name a few. She also acquired the presidential memoir of former U.S. President Barack Obama, and in 2018 led the publication of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s international bestselling title BECOMING.
From 2000 to 2009, she served as Executive Vice President of Random House Canada and Publisher of the Doubleday Canada Publishing Group. Under her leadership, Doubleday Canada evolved into a profitable division, where she acquired and edited bestselling and prize-winning authors.
Maya serves on the board of WIN NYC, the largest provider of shelter and supportive housing to homeless families in New York City.
Maya was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and immigrated to Canada where she grew up.
During her 25 plus years as a Human Resources professional within trade-book publishing, she has been an outstanding leader across many groups and a broad array of HR disciplines and initiatives. Paige is passionate about fostering an environment where employees feel empowered, valued, and safe, and is the founder of the Penguin Random House Diversity & Inclusion Council. A true HR generalist with extensive expertise and experience, she is frequently invited to speak at events and on panels and podcasts regarding a wide range of human resource topics.
In the early 1990s, several mergers and joint ventures ago, Paige began her human resources career with Putnam Berkley. She took on roles of increasing responsibility at Putnam Berkley, then Penguin Putnam, and eventually headed the HR function across the U.S. for Penguin Group USA. Prior to this appointment, for more than four years she led the HR generalist and recruiting teams for Penguin Random House’s publishing offices. Paige and her husband live just north of New York City.
Kimberly spent more than half her career in the non-profit sector as Chief Administrative Officer at American Ballet Theatre, and Deputy General Counsel at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Kim began her career at Black Entertainment Television. While there, she had the opportunity to work on the legal aspects of BET’s merger with Viacom and was tapped to establish the business and legal affairs functions for the company’s post-merger New York City location.
With over 20 years of legal and operational experience in the arts and entertainment industry, Kimberly has honed her skills as a subject matter specialist in legal and business affairs, inclusion strategy, human resources, as well as non-profit management. She has been described as having a keen ability to analyze the existing infrastructure of complex organizations, and then implement strategy to enhance inclusive culture, operational efficiency, channels of communication and risk management without sacrificing culture, artistic integrity or entrepreneurial spirit.
Kimberly attended Georgetown University where she earned a B.A. in Sociology as well as a Certificate of African Studies from the School of Foreign Service. She also holds a law degree from Tulane University School of Law.
Kimberly lives in Manhattan with her husband and two children.
Updike began her career as a bookseller, and joined Bantam Doubleday Dell as a California-based sales rep in 1989. She has held a number of leadership positions in the company, working closely with her publishing colleagues on a wide array of bestseller campaigns and imprint launches. She had a key role in the integration of Penguin and Random House, and her current portfolio includes a variety of strategic projects related to both the digital and physical marketplaces. In 2014, she was named President of Sales.
Updike lives in Connecticut and is an avid traveler (especially when scuba diving is involved).
Starting his career at Random House in 2001, Jeff held a wide variety of Sales & Business Development roles, in which he worked with both traditional bookstores and online accounts, and developed terms across digital businesses, including ebooks and audiobooks.
Throughout his career Jeff has focused on delivering data-informed innovations. In 2022, Jeff won the Bertelsmann Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurial Achievement.
Jeff resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children.
In her previous role as President and Publisher of the U.S. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, Amanda guided the audio business through a period of robust growth, increasing the audio list from 500 titles in 2008 to approximately 2,000 titles today. During her tenure, the division has published audiobook bestsellers including President Obama’s A Promised Land and Michelle Obama’s Becoming; Prince Harry’s Spare; James Clear’s Atomic Habits; Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry; Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights; James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store; Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus; Dolly Parton’s Behind the Seams; and Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough’s From Here to the Great Unknown. The Ahab Talent global casting platform, PRH Audio app, and Penguin Random House Audio Narrator Mentorship program have been launched under her leadership.
Amanda is a longtime advocate for audiobooks, speaking regularly on behalf of Penguin Random House Audio at industry events including the Frankfurt Book Fair, London Book Fair, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and Audio Publishers Association Conference. In her tenure as publisher, Penguin Random House Audio was named the London Book Fair’s International Excellence Awards 2018 Audiobook Publisher of the Year and has earned 7 GRAMMY® Awards and 21 nominations, 6 Odyssey Awards and 20 honors, and more than 57 Audie Awards and 186 nominations.
A proud Texas native, D’Acierno lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two children.
In his latest role, Manuel was Deputy Chief Financial Officer and EVP of Global Mergers and Acquisitions, which he will continue to lead along with his CFO responsibilities.
Manuel joined Penguin Random House eight years ago, and since then he has been instrumental in driving investments in both publishing houses and intellectual property assets around the world, partnering with owners and entrepreneurs using a variety of financial approaches to get the best deal outcomes for all stakeholders. Together with his team, he will work to expand on strategic and innovative ways to partner with publishing entrepreneurs to align our long-term interests with theirs during the mergers and acquisitions process.
Fluent in several languages, Manuel worked in three investments banks across North America, Latin America, and Europe, providing M&A, strategy, and restructuring services in a variety of sectors. He started his career at IBM in its Global Technology Services division.
Manuel holds a JD in law and business administration from the Carlos III University and a Master in Advanced Finance from IE Business School, both located in Madrid. He also has a Master of Science in Business Analytics from NYU, Stern School of Business.
She has been instrumental in defining the company’s strategic direction through key growth initiatives, such as working with our publishers globally on multi-year growth plans, consulting on global content acquisitions, spearheading the creation of new capabilities to manage and leverage new technology, scaling the company’s approach to the audio business across content and production, and launching data acceleration projects around the world. She has also led regional growth initiatives to leverage PRH’s content across our businesses and shape PRH’s presence in emerging markets such as China. Divya is a passionate supporter of Children’s publishing and has been instrumental in shaping PRH’s children’s global strategy, helping to execute key PRH acquisitions in this space and scaling them.
Prior to joining PRH in 2014, Divya was at Scholastic, where she held several roles across Publishing, Foreign Rights, and Cross-Company sales and analytics as well as co-authored two books. She began her career working in literary agencies in New York and London.
Divya received her MBA from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania with a focus on Strategic Management and Marketing Operations in 2014 and a BA in English at Barnard College in 2008. She lives with her husband in New York City.
Anke is a recognized expert in First Amendment and Intellectual Property law, and she and her team counsel on all aspects of the publishing process, prepublication and content review, litigation, material transactions, including corporate and commercial contracts and M&A, licensing and intellectual property matters, finance and data protection/privacy and general corporate matters.
Previously, Anke served first as counsel for Random House Children’s Books, and then for more than 10 years for the Knopf Doubleday Group, where she handled an extensive number of complex publishing-related matters and negotiations. She has been the lead in-house attorney and advisor on mergers and acquisitions, starting with Golden Books in 2000, and more recently the trade publishing business of Santillana and Edicones B in Spain and Latin America.
Prior to joining Random House in 2000, Anke was an attorney with the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, where she advised book publishers and other media companies in First Amendment and Intellectual Property matters.
Anke has law degrees from the University of Munich in Germany and NYU. (LLM).
Claire joined Random House as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications in 2011. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Corporate Communications at Sony Music, which she joined when the company was SONY BMG in 2006. She had previously worked in Corporate Communications at Bertelsmann, the majority shareholder of Penguin Random House. Claire started her career in Washington, DC handling Public and Government Affairs and Corporate Foundation management at a division of Ford Motor Company at the time, Mazda North American Operations. Claire holds a graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network