Grupo Editorial Random House Mondadori Launched

Riccardo Cavallero has been named CEO of Grupo Editorial Random House Mondadori, the Spanish-language joint venture between Random House and Italian publisher Mondadori (News, Mar. 26). The announcement of Cavallero's appointment came following the signing of a definitive agreement between Random and Mondadori officially creating the new company, in which each publisher will hold a 50% stake. Regulatory approval from the European Union is expected by the end of the summer.

Cavallero, who had been CEO of Barcelona's Grijalbo Mondadori, will be headquartered in New York and will oversee three newly formed regional publishing divisions. Grupo Editorial Plaza & Janes will be located in Barcelona and will publish for the Spanish market. It will be headed by Juan Pascual, former CEO of Plaza & Janes. Grupo Editorial Sudamericana will be based in Buenos Aires and will focus on the Argentinean, Chilean and Uruguayan markets. Faustino Linares, managing director of Plaza & Janes Mexico, has been appointed CEO of Sudamericana. Grupo Editorial Grijalbo will publish for the Mexican, Colombian and Venezuelan markets under the direction of Giancarlo Corte, who previously served as managing director of Grijalbo's Mexican division. He will be based in Mexico City.

All three men will report to Cavallero, who in turn will report to a six-member board consisting of three representatives from Random House and three from Mondadori. Peter Olson, Random chairman, said the mandate of the new company "will be to bring our authors' writing to the widest possible readership in Spain, Latin America and internationally." In the U.S., Random House Espanol serves as the "gatekeeper" for Spanish-language titles from Plaza & Janes and Sudamericana, and a Random spokesperson said that the company hopes to eventually broaden the program to include books from all its Spanish imprints.