Bertelsmann has removed the interim tag from Nihar Malaviya, who was named to head the global operations of Penguin Random House following the departure of Markus Dohle at the end of 2022. At the time, Malaviya was appointed interim CEO for PRH’s worldwide businesses, though it has long been expected that he would be officially named CEO.
In making the announcement, Bertelsmann chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe called Malaviya “the right leader” for the publisher “at the right time.” Rabe said that as interim CEO, Malaviya “has set an important strategic course. Most importantly, he has transformed the structures at Penguin Random House so that the publishers and publishing groups can work more creatively and entrepreneurially.”
Indeed, PRH’s U.S. division, by far the publisher’s largest, has undergone a wholesale transformation. In February, Malaviya split the Random House Publishing Group back up into two groups, recreating the Crown Publishing Group, while also creating a management group to oversee PRH US, rather than naming a new CEO to replace the departing Madeline McIntosh.
This spring, PRH initiated a voluntary separation offer (VSO) program, which spurred many of the company’s best-known editors, publishers, and other executives to leave the company by the end of the this year. Those changes in turn have led to more reorganizations within different imprints, promoting people to new roles.
Malaviya joined what was then Random House in 2003. In 2014, he was named president and COO of PRH, during which time, Bertelsmann said, he “spearheaded the creation of a variety of industry-first capabilities in data science, supply chain, technology, and consumer insights.”
Since being named interim CEO, Malaviya has served on Bertelsmann’s Group Management Committee, a body of executives that advises the executive board. Malaviya is also on the board of the Association of American Publishers and Yale University Press.
