Kara Welsh, who is senior v-p and publisher of Penguin's Berkley Group, has been tapped to head Random House's Ballantine Bantam Dell. Welsh is replacing Libby McGuire, who announced in November that she will leave the company at the end of 2015.
Welsh, who will take over on January 19, was chosen, said Random House president and publisher Gina Centrello, because of her "effective style and keen eye for commercial fiction and nonfiction." She joined Berkley in 2001 as publisher of NAL, and has worked with such authors as J.R. Ward, Jim Butcher and Harlan Coben. She also helped launch the Celebra and InterMix imprints.
Welsh, who was at Pocket Books before Berkley (where she worked with Centrello), will now have BBD senior v-p, associate publisher and editor-in-chief Jennifer Hershey reporting to her, as well as Kim Hovey, BBD's senior v-p and deputy publisher.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Kara Welsh's last name.
