Tim Hely Hutchinson will retire as CEO of Hachette UK (HUK) at the end of 2017. He will be succeeded by David Shelley, CEO of Little, Brown Book Group and Orion.
Shelley will also join Hachette UK's executive committee as CEO designate beginning the July 1 and will report to Arnaud Nourry, chairman of Hachette Livre and Hachette UK.
Hely Hutchinson worked at Macmillan and Macdonald before setting up Headline in 1986. Headline bought Hodder & Stoughton in 1993; the combined Hodder Headline became part of Lagardere (Hachette's parent), with Hely Hutchinson as CEO, in 2004.
Shelley joined Hachette from Allison & Busby in 2005. He became Little, Brown CEO in July 2015, succeeding Ursula Mackenzie, and added the Orion role soon after.
Among other changes prompted by Hely Hutchinson's retirement, Jamie Hodder-Williams, CEO of Hodder & Stoughton, John Murray Press, Headline and Quercus, will, in addition to his present responsibilities, become director of trade publishing of HUK from January 1 2018. He will join the international board of Hachette Livre, to which he will have responsibility for the group's world rights adult publishing; he will also join the board of Hachette Book Group in the U.S., and will join Hachette UK's executive committee beginning this July.
Richard Kitson, group commercial director of HUK and a member of HUK's executive committee, will become deputy CEO of Hachette UK in January 2018.
Tim Hely Hutchinson said: "I have been superbly supported by Arnaud, my present and former colleagues and our authors throughout these golden years at Hachette and I could not possibly be more grateful. I know that David and his colleagues will do brilliantly when they take over and I wish them the very best of good fortune."
Arnaud Nourry said: Hely Hutchinson "has had an amazing career, including the founding of Headline, then Hodder Headline and finally working as my business partner to create and expand Hachette UK. To my mind, his greatest legacy is all the talent he has recruited and developed, including the senior team whose appointments we are announcing today, but also more deeply throughout the company. He has always striven to run a talented and happy house, as well as a successful one, and he has succeeded. I am so glad he is staying with us until the end of 2018 to help the new management and I will be wishing him a very long and happy retirement when the time comes."
Editor's note: A longer version of this story appeared in BookBrunch.
