Martina O’Sullivan to lead Portfolio

Martina O’Sullivan has joined Penguin General Books from Palgrave Macmillan to head up the Portfolio business list as editorial director.

Portfolio, Penguin General's business books imprint, launched in 2010 and now publishes 30 titles per year, with many of its books published alongside Portfolio US.  To reflect the size of the list, it has expanded its publishing team. The new appointments follow the departure of Joel Rickett, who launched the business books imprint. He left in May to become deputy publisher at Ebury.

O’Sullivan, formerly publisher at Palgrave Macmillan, will report to Venetia Butterfield, publishing director of Viking, Portfolio and Penguin Life, in her new role leading the Portfolio team. She has a background in business publishing at Kogan Page and FT Prentice Hall (now FT Press). She created the cultural studies list at academic publishing start-up Rowman & Littlefield International before moving to Palgrave Macmillan to lead the Film, Culture and Media team.  

(Left to right) Celia Buzuk, Martina O’Sullivan, David Over, Lydia Yadi and Mathias Lord. 

Lydia Yadi, currently assistant editor for Portfolio, has been promoted to commissioning editor. Yadi joined the Porfolio team in April 2016, commissioning and editing projects from across the list. Among her acquisitions were Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo and Make the First Move by Bumble c.e.o. Whitney Wolfe, while her high-profile authors include Tony Fernandes, Sam Conniff Allende and General Stanley McChrystal.

Mathias Lord has joined the team as communications assistant, reporting to David Over, head of communications.  Over joined Portfolio early in 2016 and has been leading the way on events and partnerships including the recent Penguin Live event with Simon Sinek and Reggie Yates at Union Chapel. 

Celia Buzuk has joined the team as publishing assistant, supporting both editorial and publicity activities.  

The Portfolio list includes authors Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last and Together is Better; Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup; James Rickards, author of The Death of Money, The Road to Ruin and The New Case for Gold and Sophia Amoruso, author of #GirlBoss. Titles coming this autumn include It Takes a Tribe by Will Dean, Who Can You Trust? by Rachel Botsman and Flying High by Tony Fernandes.