Leigh Marchant will join Hachette Book Group as SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, effective September 23, reporting to Deputy CEO Richard Kitson. Marchant succeeds Wibke Grutjen, who left HBG this month to join Simon & Schuster. She will lead HBG’s marketing strategy team, which serves 40 publishers, and work with HBG’s sales team, publishing groups and Hachette Livre’s international marketing teams.
Most recently, Marchant served as SVP and Director of Marketing, Strategy and Engagement at Random House Group, where she oversaw marketing and brand strategies for fiction and nonfiction across all categories, including campaigns for authors such as Peter Attia, Brené Brown, Lee Child, Emma Cline, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Glennon Doyle, Lena Dunham, Prince Harry, George Saunders, Nicholas Sparks and Elizabeth Strout.
Prior to joining Random House Group, where she spent 14 years, Marchant served as associate marketing director for paperback books at Random House, Spiegel & Grau, and Ballantine Bantam Dell. She has also worked as an account manager at Barnes & Noble, an advertising and promotions manager at Oxford University Press, and a publicist at Perseus Books Group.
“I am delighted to be joining Hachette at this pivotal moment for the company and the publishing industry,” Marchant said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing my experience in marketing and joining the team to make their remarkable list of books accessible to readers everywhere.”
