Valerie Van Delft, senior v-p of logistics at Penguin Random House, will retire this August, PRH executive v-p and chief supply chain officer Annette Danek announced in a letter to staff on March 20. As a result of Van Delft's retirement, Tracey Presley has been promoted to senior v-p of global transportation and logistics, effective immediately, and will report to Danek.
"What a singular difference maker she has been," Danek wrote of Van Delft, whom she met in 1998, characterizing her career in the memo as the transformation of "a hidden, underutilized local talent" into "one of our PRH MVPs."
Danek added: "I am struck by how many segments of our business will join me in missing her," including the transportation division, comprising "25,000-plus trucks constantly in and out of our facilities, across the country, all year long;" the stock control division, managing inventory "in more than 700,000 distinct locations in all our warehouses"; purchasing management, which allows the company to "ship more than 450 million units a year," and more. "To truly consider the depth and scope of Valerie’s PRH’s Operations reach and responsibility," Danek said, "is overwhelming, even for me."
In Presley, Danek wrote, Penguin Random House Publishing Services has found "the must-go-to global-services in-house transportation expert." She characterized him as "a genuine professional with a gift for creative and cost-effective solutions" whose "painstaking, win-win approach to negotiations with our domestic and international carriers has translated to significant cost savings and efficiencies for us across the board."
Danek added that Presley's "dynamic leadership style" and "understanding of the far-flung complexities within the international freight network" have enabled the division "to successfully navigate importing our books from overseas printers during many global supply-chain disruptions." Those include, she wrote, "COVID and, most recently, delays related to historically low water levels in the Panama Canal, and the conflicts impacting the safety of maritime vessels transiting the Red Sea en route to the Suez Canal."
In addition, Alison Martin has been named senior v-p of customer solutions, analytics, projects, and strategy, effective April 1. Jeanie Wood, v-p of fulfillment procurement and inventory management, will report to Martin, and Wendy Carey Leppo, director of wave planning, will report to Alyssa Oles, senior v-p of fulfillment operations and IT Services, also effective April 1.
