Ed Spade Named Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Hachette Book Group
NEW YORK, January 5, 2025 – Hachette Book Group (HBG) announced today that Ed Spade has been named Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Hachette Book Group. The appointment was made by Richard Kitson, Hachette Book Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer, to whom Spade will report.
In this new role, Spade will optimize and scale the commercial success of HBG by driving operational excellence across the company’s publishing ecosystem including sales, marketing, IT, finance, analytics, and other cross-functional departments. This position will further strengthen HBG’s data-driven culture through enhancements to current and future systems and performance dashboards that informcommercial and publishing decisions, demand planning, and revenue strategy. Spade will refine inventory planning for maximum margin, increase global availability, oversee metadata, and advance discoverability strategies. He will also lead key cross-functional initiatives, fostering relationships across HBG, including supporting relationships between key stakeholders, ideating innovative growth improvements, developing new partnerships and ventures, strengthening client relationships, and establishing dynamic new ways of working. As the lead client liaison, Spade will collaborate with Hachette companies worldwide to identify efficiencies and opportunities to optimize workflows, profitability, including the refinement of pricing strategies across formats, markets, and distribution channels.
“I look forward to partnering with Ed on HBG’s commercial operations roadmap. As a senior advisor to the Executive Management Board, his expertise will positively impact the company’s growth,” said Kitson. “Enhancing HBG’s forecasting, pricing and revenue, Ed’s extensive experience partnering with authors and agents to thoughtfully position books in the marketplace, will strengthen business analytics, sales, operations, distribution models, and digital content ecosystems.”
Spade has more than two decades of publishing experience across operations, sales, and business transformation with a proven track record modernizing commercial operations and implementing scalable systems. He most recently served as President of Sales at HarperCollins overseeing multiple business operations including print, digital, retail partnerships, and more. Spade played a key role in enterprise-wide initiatives involving organizational structure, inventory and returns management, digital and audio growth, and the expansion of premium and special market programs, working closely with editorial, finance, and operations leadership.
Earlier in his career, Spade was Interim President of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Books & Media division (HMH), a leading publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works, leading the trade business through its 2021 sale to HarperCollins. He joined HMH in 2017 and later served as Vice President of Sales and while also leading the Audio division. In those roles, he managed sales across channels, oversaw the launch of HMH’s audio division, expanded experimentation in digital business models, and spearheaded significant growth in the educational market. Prior to HMH, Spade held senior sales leadership roles at Ingram Content Group and Viacom. He began his career at Penguin Young Readers Group, working closely with authors to bring children’s books to interactive multimedia and audio formats.
“I’m excited to join Hachette at such a pivotal moment. David and Richard have clearly built a culture defined by understanding consumers, with a deep commitment to readers, as well as growth mindset,” said Spade. “I look forward to partnering with colleagues across the organization to support Hachette’s continued growth and long-term strategic direction.”
About Hachette Book Group:
Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a leading U.S. general-interest book publisher made up of dozens of esteemed imprints within the publishing groups Basic Books Group, Grand Central Publishing Group, Hachette Audio, Little, Brown and Company, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Orbit, Workman Publishing, and Running Press Group. We also provide custom distribution, fulfillment, and sales services to several publishing companies.
Our books and authors have received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, Booker Prize, Nobel Peace Prize, James Beard Award, and other major honors.
We are committed to diversity in our company and our publishing programs, and to fostering a culture of inclusion for all our employees and authors. We are proud to be part of Hachette Livre, the world’s third-largest trade and educational publisher.
Visit hachettebookgroup.com to learn more about HBG imprints. For updated news follow HBG on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, X.com, Snapchat, and YouTube.
Press Contact: Gabrielle Gambrell gabrielle.gambrell@hbgusa.com