Hespanha appointed HarperCollins Brasil director

HarperCollins Publishers has appointed Patricia Hespanha to the role of executive director of HarperCollins Brasil.

Hespanha is taking over from Antonio Araujo, who is becoming general manager of Nova Fronteira e Petra, and will be responsible for the day-to-day management of operations in Brazil, including setting the editorial programme. She will report to the board.

She has 25 years of international business management, recently working for the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for Olympic and Paralympic Games and Citibank.

Brian Murray, president and c.e.o. of HarperCollins Publishers, said: “I am excited to welcome Patricia to HarperCollins Brasil. She has a proven record of leading organisations to success. HarperCollins remains enthusiastic about the market, and Patricia’s leadership and expertise are complementary to our plans to expand both international and local authors in the region.”

She previously spent 15 years at Readers Digest in Brazil, Mexico and Europe where she served as regional president of Latin America, Asia and Pacific.

HarperCollins Brasil was launched in 2015 by HarperCollins Publishers and Ediouro Group, after the merger of the existing operations of Thomas Nelson Brasil and Harlequin Brasil with Ediouro’s commercial trade publishing.

It publishes around 350 titles per year from HarperCollins’ trade, children’s, Christian and romance imprints, as well as from a list of local Brazilian authors.