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David Young, CEO of the Orion Publishing Group and Deputy CEO of Hachette UK, is retiring at the end of the year.

David Shelley will take over Young’s role on January 1, 2016, and will also continue as  CEO of Little, Brown Book Group.

Young began his career in publishing in the UK at Thorsons in 1970.  During his career he served as Managing Director of HarperCollins Trade Division UK and Chief Executive of Time Warner Book Group UK, as well as CEO of Hachette Book Group.

“For me, one of the great joys of Hachette’s acquisition of the Time Warner Book Group was getting to know David.  From the very beginning of our working relationship, David was a pleasure to work with,” stated Arnaud Nourry, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Livre. “Under his leadership, the newly-created Hachette Book Group quickly grew to be one of the most successful and admired publishing houses in the US, discovering great talent and publishing many wonderful and original books and authors to global success.”

“David Shelley is the perfect successor to David Young,” stated Tim Hely Hutchinson, group CEO of Hachette UK. “They share much more than just a name; David Shelley has the flair, vision and talent needed to lead Orion and Katie Espiner’s appointment is his first stroke of brilliance.”

In addition to the change in leadership, the publisher has revealed several people moves. Katie Espiner, the current publisher of The Borough Press and HarperFiction (including HarperVoyager) will be appointed managing director of the Orion Publishing Group later this year.(Lisa Milton will continue as managing director until then after which she will become a consultant to the company). Jon Wood, currently Deputy Group Publisher and Managing Director of Fiction for Orion, will become Publisher of the Orion Publishing Group in January, reporting to Espiner.

J.K. Rowling has inked a deal with Little, Brown Book Group and Little, Brown and Company to publish her first novel for adults. The publisher did not reveal the title or publication date, but the novel will be published in print and eBook formats.

Little, Brown Book Group publisher David Shelley will edit and publish for UK readers and Little, Brown and Company executive vice president Michael Pietsch will publish in the United States.

Rowling had this statement in the release: “Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world. The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life.”

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