Ananth Padmanabhan, senior v-p of sales at Penguin Random House India, has been named CEO of HarperCollins India. The appointment comes less than a week after HC India announced that its longtime head, P.M. Sukumar, was leaving the company.
Padmanabhan will have responsibility for all divisions of the business and will report to Charlie Redmayne, CEO of HarperCollins UK.
While at PRH India, Padmanabhan served on the management executive and was responsible for sales, local acquisition and publishing strategy and local digital strategy. He will begin his new job at the beginning of October.
Responsibility for the day to day running of the Collins India education business remains with Krishna Naroor, who will continue to report into Colin Hughes, managing director of Collins Learning, based in London, HC said.
HarperCollins also announced the formation of a new HarperCollins India Board. The board will include Charlie Redmayne CEO HarperCollins UK (HCUK), Ananth Padmanabhan CEO HarperCollins India (HCI), Colin Hughes MD of Collins Learning, Ed Kielbasiewicz Finance Director of HCUK, Alex Beecroft Corporate Development Director HCUK and Amit Abrol, finance director of HCI. As MD of Collins India, Krishna Naroor will also join the board.
PRH moved quickly to replace Padmanabhan, promoting Nandan Jha to v-p product and sales for Penguin Random House in India.
