Mike Ballanco, senior VP and chief information officer at Hachette Book Group, will retire on September 27. Brendan Goss, the current CIO of Hachette UK, will assume the newly created role of group CIO of HBG and HUK, overseeing information technology teams in both the U.K. and U.S., on September 1. He will continue to report to Richard Kitson, deputy CEO of HBG and HUK. The move is the latest promotion reflecting the reorganization, which began last year, of HBG and HUK under a single English-language management structure.
Ballanco joined HBG nine years ago, and has since spearheaded a strategic IT transformation that HBG said modernized 85% of its legacy applications with a new integrated systems portfolio. He also oversaw, on the IT side, the integration of the Perseus Book Group into HBG. Previously, Ballanco served as CIO for such businesses as EMI Music North America and Warner Music Group. “It was a privilege to cap off my 43-year IT career at HBG,” he said in a statement.
“I am honored to be taking on the responsibility of leading our combined teams across the U.S. and U.K., and I look forward to continuing the excellent work which Mike has undertaken,” said Goss, who joined Hachette UK in 2018 and has been its CIO since 2022. Previously, he served stints at such companies as B&Q, GlaxoSmithKline, Next, Philip Morris, and Sainsbury’s.
The creation of the group CIO role has prompted additional promotions. In the U.S., Puneet Kukkal, currently HBG’s chief technology officer, will become senior VP and CIO of HBG. Kukkal has been with HBG since 2016. In the U.K., Rob Forster, IT director, who joined HUK last year, will step into the role of CIO.
