Hachette UK has named Katie Espiner as its new chief executive, with David Shelley moving up to become executive chair of both Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group, the publisher’s British and American businesses.

The changes take effect from the start of 2027 and form part of a wider reshuffle of Hachette’s English-language leadership announced in late September.

A publishing leader steps up

Espiner has risen through the publisher’s senior ranks over more than a decade. She led the Orion division before being promoted in 2024 to run Hachette UK’s nine adult trade divisions, a role that put her in charge of much of the group’s commercial fiction and non-fiction output.

Her elevation to the top job at Hachette UK consolidates the group’s British leadership at a moment when publishers are managing rapid change across reading habits, retail and digital formats. She takes overall responsibility for one of the UK’s largest publishing houses, home to imprints including Hodder & Stoughton, Little, Brown, Orion and Headline.

Shelley’s new brief

David Shelley gives up the English-language management role he has held since 2023, when Hachette Livre created a structure spanning its British and American publishers, and becomes executive chair of Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group. He will also act as global advisor to Hachette Livre’s chief executive and deputy chief executive, Arnaud Lagardere and Jean Christophe Thiery respectively, working on new markets, global synergies and acquisitions.

Shelley, who had been splitting his time between New York and London, will return to the UK. During his three-year tenure at Hachette Book Group, revenue at the publisher increased by 18 per cent, with a reorganisation that better aligned the business following a series of major acquisitions.

Changes across the Atlantic

Ben Sevier, who joined Hachette Book Group in 2017 and was appointed president and publisher of Grand Central Publishing in 2024, becomes chief executive of the American business.

Richard Kitson, deputy chief executive of Hachette UK and Hachette Book Group, has been named president and chief operating officer for global English language, a role intended to align operations more closely across the two markets and further growth plans for client sales and distribution services. Both Sevier and Kitson will continue to report to Shelley.

Further changes include a new Hachette Book Group publishing programme in Canada overseen by Sally Kim, president and publisher of Little, Brown, aimed at discovering and publishing Canadian writers who can benefit from the group’s international reach, and the promotion of Emily Meehan to president and publisher of Union Square & Co.

‘We have exceptional talent at HBG and with these moves we will continue to place our authors at the centre of all we do and to help them find more readers for their work’, Shelley said in a statement.

For British publishing, the appointment of Espiner hands the leadership of one of the industry’s most significant houses to an executive who has spent her career close to its authors and imprints, at a time when the group’s global structure is being redrawn around her.