New roles for Crewe and O'Sullivan at Penguin General

Daniel Crewe and Martina O'Sullivan are to take up new roles at Penguin General with the departure of publisher Venetia Butterfield, who will become m.d. of Cornerstone in January 2021.

Butterfield's role will not be directly replaced at the division, Penguin General m.d. Joanna Prior has announced.

Instead Crewe (pictured) will become publishing director for Penguin Business and Penguin Life, as well as for Viking Non-Fiction, reporting to Prior. Crewe is publisher for authors Mikael Krogerus, Roman Tschappeler and Marshall Goldsmith on the business list, and at Penguin Life he publishes of Haemin Sunim and James Nestor. Prior called him" a brilliant non-fiction publisher with great range", saying: "His books cover the very best in history, politics, economics, popular science and occasionally, sport and humour. He leads a very strong non-fiction team at Viking and both Life and Business will benefit from his experience, international outlook and publishing strategy.”

Meanwhile O’Sullivan will become publisher for Penguin Life, as well as Penguin Business, reporting to Daniel Crewe. O'Sullivan joined the division three years ago and has rebranded the list, introduced the Penguin Experts and created gender parity in new business commissioning. Her new and upcoming publications include Reimagining Capitalism by Harvard Professor Rebecca Henderson and Seth Godin’s "ground-breaking" new book on creativity The Practice.

Joanna said: “Martina’s own interests equip her well to apply her leadership and publishing skills to Life as well as Business, and working closely with Emily Robertson on Life, as well as Julia Murday, our associate communications director for Life and Business, I know she will continue to grow these two high-performing specialist lists.”

Viking Fiction will be led by existing publishers Mary Mount and Katy Loftus, who will both now report directly to Joanna Prior. In an additional promotion, Isabel Wall steps up to commissioning editor for Viking, with immediate effect, reporting to Mary Mount.

Prior said: “Isabel has a great eye for the distinct and special book in both fiction and non-fiction and will bring many exciting new projects to the Viking list in this new role.”

Of Butterfield's departure, Prior added: “I want to congratulate Venetia on her well-deserved promotion to this exciting new role. We shall miss her enormously at Penguin General. An important part of Venetia’s legacy at Penguin General is the team of brilliant publishers she has worked with and developed over the years, so I am certain we will continue with our ambitions for growth and am confident of creating the very best conditions for our authors’ books to succeed. Venetia and I have worked together on a succession plan that reflects the strength and depth of talent in our existing publishing team and provides the opportunity for some well-deserved promotions.”