Bonnier hires Shaw as commercial director

Bonnier Publishing has hired Julian Shaw as commercial director, with one of his first roles set to be keeping an eye on Hot Key Books until a replacement can be found for departing m.d. Sarah Odedina. 

Richard Johnson, c.e.o. at Bonnier Publishing, told The Bookseller that Hot Key Books is Shaw’s “first project”. 

He said: “With all the plans we’ve got we knew we needed someone like this and his CV is absolutely perfect.”

Johnson would not give any information about why Sarah Odedina left the role of m.d. at Hot Key Books, a role took on when the company was set up in 2012, but said Bonnier is still committed to children’s fiction.

“Our plans are unchanged,” he said. “Sarah leaving is unfortunate but it does not change our desire to grow. She has left her m.d. position but life goes on.”

As well as looking after Hot Key Books, Shaw will be involved in all of Bonnier’s plans for growth, including growing the adult non-fiction list, said Johnson. “As we’ve already said, our cornerstone is still getting to [turnover of] £100m, £5m will be from natural growth which leaves us £10m short. We will be making further acquisitions soon.”

Shaw was previously finance director at Localstars and before that was commercial director at Igloo Books, the mass market publisher acquired by Bonnier last month.

He has also worked for Simon & Schuster, Little, Brown Book Group and Hachette.