Shona Burns: 2008 Publishing Executive Hall of Fame Inductee

As for individual projects, Burns cites her work on the “Beatles Anthology” as a highlight of her career up to this point. “Being involved with … a 3-million-copy best-seller was phenomenal, both in terms of the pleasure of publishing such a great book, but also in the challenges of the manufacturing and supply logistics involved with 11 simultaneous languages publishing at the same time.”

While some might find such a logistical challenge nightmare-inducing, Burns embraces such projects with that same spirit and enthusiasm that originally led her into the world of publishing. At the very least, she has certainly never found herself bored rigid.

“It’s an enormous challenge, but exciting,” she says. “I think in 22 years I haven’t really gotten to a point where I’ve ever been bored—which is amazing, to stay in the same industry and never having gotten bored yet. There’s just so much continuous change. It’s ever-interesting.”