Sarah Odedina to Join Bonnier Publishing

Richard Johnson, CEO of Bonnier Publishing, announced the appointment today of Sarah Odedina as managing director of a new, and as yet unnamed, children's publishing company to be launched in late 2011/early 2012. 

For the past 14 years, Sarah Odedina has served as publishing director of the children's list of Bloomsbury Publishing, including overseeing and managing the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, which has worldwide sales in excess of 450 million books and is published in 67 languages.  As publisher of Bloomsbury, Odedina has published over 1,000 new titles and in her career has won three Carnegie Medals. 

In her new role, Odedina will become managing director of an entirely new children's publishing company to be based in central London.  The company will be focused on publishing children's fiction across a wide age spectrum.  A new publishing team will be recruited over the next few months and it is anticipated the first titles will be published in fall 2012.

"I am thrilled and honored that Sarah has agreed to join Bonnier and to have her considerable experience and vision to set up and run this exciting new venture," said Richard Johnson, CEO of Bonnier Publishing. "Bonnier is committed to grow in the English language and lead the way in quality children's publishing, and we could have wished for no one better than Sarah, one of the U.K.'s leading children's publishers, to head this new initiative."

"I am hugely excited to have this wonderful opportunity to create a new children's list within such a dynamic and energetic company," said Odedina. "I very much look forward to building an exciting list that will embrace the many challenges our market is facing at the moment."