Ladybird expands to drive preschool market as Geraldine McBride steps up to publishing director

Geraldine McBride will take on a new and expanded role as Ladybird publishing director with three new appointments made to the Ladybird team, to help “drive growth in the preschool market” and expand Ladybird’s licensing portfolio across older age groups.

McBride steps up to Ladybird publishing director with a focus on trade publishing alongside her existing role as children’s sales director.

Additionally there are three newly created roles: Frances Elks joins Ladybird from Hachette Children’s as editorial director reporting to Lou Grosart, and Simone Taylor comes from Scholastic, as commissioning editor. She will report to McBride. Leanne Gill, who was appointed Ladybird publishing director in January 2023, is appointed to a new role of licensing publishing director in response to the growth of Ladybird’s expanding licensing business.  

The changes are part of “a series of announcements to drive growth and generate further opportunities in the preschool market”, Ladybird revealed.

Both McBride and Gill will report to Francesca Dow, managing director, Penguin Random House (PRH) Children’s. 

Dow said: “Ladybird’s market-leading publishing with Bluey and Peppa and our Ten Minutes to Bed series has contributed significantly to Penguin Random House Children’s preschool growth. With the strength of the Ladybird brand, which is trusted by over 90% of parents and families, and the opportunities in the preschool market, we are excited and ambitious about Ladybird’s new growth story in both the licensing and the trade areas of our list. By separating these lists from one another, we can create more focus and opportunities for them both.”   

Dow added: “Geraldine is an expert in preschool and she has played a significant role in helping us achieve our impressive Puffin and Ladybird preschool success in recent years. With her excellent knowledge of what’s working in the market, her distinctive eye for format and illustration and packaging and her love of the preschool market and imaginative storytelling for our youngest readers, I’m confident about how Ladybird – our author and illustrator-led publishing – will grow and flourish under her leadership.” 

Dow said Gill’s licensing expertise will help Ladybird expand its licensing portfolio beyond preschool. "With our clever and creative licensing team, and their tactical acquisition of licenses and rights, we have huge opportunity to grow in licensing across the age groups and in all our markets" she said.

McBride said: “I am delighted to be working even more closely with such a commercial and creatively ambitious team led by Lou Grosart, publisher, and James Stevens, art director. It will be an honour to help continue to create books for the youngest readers with such an iconic brand – helping children play and grow and importantly sparking joy and a life-long love of reading.” 

These changes follow the recent announcement about growth plans at PRH Children’s with the appointment of Nat Doherty, moving from HarperCollins Children’s Books, back over to the newly created role of publisher at Puffin Press, the new Puffin list for middle grade fiction.