Two months after being named to succeed Lisa Holton as president of Scholastic’s trade division, Ellie Berger has announced several major promotions in the unit. The most significant appointment is that of Suzanne Murphy, v-p of marketing for Scholastic Trade, who has been named v-p and publisher, trade publishing and marketing, and will assume many of the duties Berger held when she was in that role before her promotion in October. Murphy, who joined Scholastic from Simon & Schuster in 2005, will oversee the division’s editorial, design and marketing departments.
In her new role, which she officially starts January 1, Murphy named David Saylor to the newly created position of v-p, associate publisher and creative director for hardcover books. He had been creative director for the Scholastic Trade division. On the marketing side, Leslie Garych has been named v-p of trade marketing, and Tracy van Straaten has been appointed v-p of publicity and education/library marketing. Garych will continue to oversee the marketing/sales operations and creative services group for Scholastic Trade, while adding trade marketing efforts for all division imprints. Van Straaten will continue to lead the publicity team and takes on management of the author programs/events/conferences, along with the education and library marketing departments.
In a final promotion, David Levithan has been promoted to executive editorial director for Scholastic Fiction, Multimedia Publishing and PUSH, the young adult imprint he launched in 2002.
