Wildfire's Rokadiya to join William Collins

William Collins has appointed Wildfire commissioning editor Shoaib Rokadiya as editorial director.

He will start the role on 2nd March, reporting to publishing director Arabella Pike. The appointment follows Tom Killingbeck's departure to be Viking's editorial director.

At the Headline imprint, Rokadiya brought in authors including Sarfraz Manzoor, Eliza Griswold, Nathan Pyle, Nice Leng’ete and Colton Wooten. Before that he spent three years at Penguin Press, working with authors such as Grayson Perry, Sayeeda Warsi, Matt Parker and Robert Plomin.

He said: "I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to help build Wildfire’s non-fiction list and I’ll be sorry to leave my extraordinary authors behind. But the prospect of helping to shape such an illustrious imprint for the future – and of learning from one of the most respected editors in the industry – was too good to turn down. I can’t wait to get started."

Pike added: "I have admired Shoaib’s publishing for some time. He is passionate about great non-fiction writing and has demonstrated time and again his great taste, his nose for a good idea and his ability to transform the most important issues facing the world today into stimulating books. All the things we most cherish at William Collins. I am delighted he is joining our dynamic and talented team as editorial director and cannot wait to read the wonderful books he’ll bring to the imprint."