New York, NY, July 3. 2012—Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company announced today that Catherine Bell, UK sales and marketing head of DK, will be Co-Managing Director and Head of Publishing, Marketing and Trade Sales for Scholastic UK, effective September 10, 2012. Steve Thompson, currently Managing Director of Book Fairs for Scholastic UK, will become Co-Managing Director, Operations. Together they will be responsible for management of Scholastic UK.
In making the announcement, Richard Robinson, Scholastic’s CEO and Chairman, says: “This past fiscal year has seen a significant turnaround for Scholastic UK, which attained a strong operating profit for the year based on cost reduction and our outstanding children’s trade list, including The Hunger Games trilogy. After a period of focusing on reducing costs, we are now ready to resume our drive for profitable growth.
"We are excited that Catherine Bell, who has had a marvelous career at Penguin, has decided to take responsibility for our publishing and marketing in both print and digital forms. Working together with Scholastic’s children’s book teams in the US, Canada, Australia and around the world, she will build the UK side of our global publishing lists and authors, while strengthening our marketing. Working in partnership with Steve Thompson, she will help move our UK efforts forward at an exciting time for publishing with new digital distribution channels bringing even broader impact to children’s reading around the world.”
Catherine Bell has worked in both the Puffin and DK operations in her 19 years with Penguin. In her new role, she will now be responsible for all publishing and marketing for Scholastic’s trade, Book Clubs, Book Fairs, and education divisions as well as for Scholastic UK’s web team. She will also be responsible for directing trade sales. Reporting to Catherine will be group heads Hilary Murray Hill for trade, Julie Randles, for school based marketing and product acquisition, including domestic and international clubs and UK fairs, and Gordon Knowles, head of Mary Glasgow. Catherine will be based in Scholastic’s London headquarters in Euston.
Steve Thompson, the Co-Managing Director for Operations, is a member of Scholastic UK’s Executive Management Team and has made major contributions to the development of the UK business. Steve, who has worked for Scholastic for 17 years, is most recently responsible for a dramatic turnaround in our Book Fair business. Steve began his career as Management Accountant for fairs. In 2008, he became Head of the Book Fairs division. Steve will now be responsible for telemarketing and customer service, warehousing and fulfilment, information technology, school channel sales management, and human resources, as well as coordination of financial operations. He will be based in Scholastic’s distribution and customer service centers in Southam and Witney.