Houghton Mifflin has appointed Gary Gentel v-p and director of sales for its trade & reference division. Gentel, who starts at HM October 6, is currently v-p of trade sales for Scholastic. In the newly created post, Gentel will oversee the division's trade sales, as well as its special sales, sales operations and distribution clients.

Gentel has been in publishing for 23 years. Before joining Scholastic, Gentel was v-p of sales for DK Publishing, president of Candlewick Press and v-p, national field sales for Random House's children's division. He will be based in HM's Boston headquarters.