Joel Rickett to lead Ebury as new m.d.

Joel Rickett has been named Rebecca Smart's successor as Ebury's managing director.

Rickett will take up the role on 1st January 2019. The announcement follows hard on the heels of the news that Jake Lingwood is stepping down from his role as deputy m.d. and publisher at Ebury after 20 years.

Rickett came to Ebury just last year in a new role as deputy publisher, with overall responsibility for Virgin, W H Allen and Vermilion. In this capacity he has acquired books by authors including Netflix founder Reed Hastings, Stanford behavioural scientist B.J. Fogg, psychologist Ethan Kross and addiction specialist Dr Gabor Mate.

He joined the non-fiction publisher after almost a decade at Viking. While at Viking and Penguin General, he published authors including Clare Balding, Jennifer Saunders, Will Gompertz, Susan Cain, Simon Sinek, the Brownlee brothers and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as well as launching business books imprint Portfolio and helping to start Penguin Life. Prior to entering publishing, he was at The Bookseller.

Rickett will join the PRH UK leadership team, reporting to c.e.o. Tom Weldon.

Meanwhile Andrew Goodfellow, currently Ebury’s deputy publisher, responsible for Ebury Press, Rider Books and Pop Press, has been promoted to publisher. 

Weldon commented: "I gave Joel his first job in publishing and I have been very impressed over the last decade how he has developed into both a really dynamic publisher and a generous, collaborative, clear-thinking leader. I am very excited that he is becoming the new Ebury m.d. and joining my Leadership Team.  He has an important role to play in the future success of Penguin Random House UK."

Rickett said: "It is a huge honour and privilege to lead Ebury. Since joining I have been blown away by the strength of the team and the quality of the publishing here. Ebury is a non-fiction powerhouse, with a unique range, deep expertise, and an endless flow of new ideas. I want us to go from strength to strength and to become one of the most creative publishers in the world. Non-fiction is booming and Ebury is perfectly placed to lead the pack.

"I’ll follow the great work Rebecca Smart has done in building an open, forward-thinking culture, and sustain the high calibre publishing ethos built by Jake Lingwood. I’m particularly delighted to be promoting Andrew Goodfellow who is stepping up to a role perfectly suited to his creative publishing skills.

"This is an exciting moment for Ebury, with books like Yotam Ottolenghi’s Simple, Together: Our Community Cookbook and Peter Crouch’s How to Be a Footballer already riding high from our stellar autumn list."

Ebury currently publishes around 260 new titles a year across Ebury Press (illustrated, narrative and fiction), BBC Books, Rider, Vermilion, Virgin and WH Allen. It also includes partnership publisher Ebury Enterprises and personal and professional development platform Penguin Living.