Young succeeds retiring Bland at Canongate

Former Hachette US and Orion boss David Young is to succeed Sir Christopher Bland, long-serving chairman of Canongate Books, in January 2017.

Bland is retiring after 22 years as chair of the Edinburgh-based independent publisher.

Young managed Little, Brown UK for 10 years before taking over what would become Hachette Book Group USA from 2007–13, after which he returned to the UK as c.e.o. of Orion and deputy c.e.o. of Hachette UK. He is the current president of The Book Trade Charity.

Young said: “I am very excited by the prospect of working with [Canongate c.e.o.] Jamie Byng and his talented team. I look forward to contributing to Canongate’s continued success and profitability over the years ahead.”

Bland would be “missed enormously”, Byng said, “but David Young is someone who I have admired and respected for almost as long as I have been in publishing. To have David succeeding Christopher makes me and the rest of the Canongate board both reassured and excited.”

Bland, who has had an influential career at some of the UK’s most reputable businesses, had his début novel, Ashes in the Wind, published by Head of Zeus in 2014.