Nicole Winstanley has been named president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Canada, effective April 11. She succeeds Kevin Hanson, who left the company at the end of February. Winstanley will report to S&S president and CEO Jonathan Karp, and will serve as a member of Simon & Schuster's executive committee.
Winstanley joins Simon & Schuster from Penguin Random House Canada, where she was a v-p as well as the publisher of Penguin Canada. She joined the company in 2006 as a senior editor for what was then known as Penguin Group Canada, and was promoted to publisher in 2010 and added president to her title in 2012. She was named v-p of Penguin Random House Canada in 2015. Prior to joining Penguin Canada, Winstanley served as director of international rights at Westwood Creative Artists Literary Agency.
During her 18-year tenure at Penguin Canada, Winstanley published books by Academy Award–winning screenwriter Sarah Polley, Amazon Canada First Novel Award winner Mona Awad, Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize winner katherena vermette, international bestseller Nita Prose, and numerous works by bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay, among others.
In response to the departure, Kristin Cohrane, CEO of Penguin Random House Canada, called Winstanley "a force in shaping the Penguin Canada list into a powerhouse publishing group that has consistently been a major driver of sales, bestsellers, retailer picks, and awards attention across its imprints." She added that in the past year alone, Penguin Canada had 40 Globe and Mail bestsellers.
For her part, Winstanley said, "I have been enormously impressed with [Simon & Schuster’s] significant impact on the Canadian publishing landscape in a relatively short period of time. I look forward to building on that success and to working closely with Jon Karp, whom I have long admired, and the rest of the Simon & Schuster team."
Karp added: "Nicole Winstanley is one of the most highly regarded publishers at work in Canada. Nicole's reputation for excellence, her commitment to authors, and her keen editorial eye will help us become an even greater force throughout Canada and all of the territories in which we publish. We are thrilled to be welcoming Nicole to our executive leadership team and committed to her vision of publishing an even broader range of books in Canada—works of great popular interest and high literary quality."
