Peter Olson's Departure Letter

-- Publishers Weekly, 5/20/2008 6:32:00 AM

Dear Random House Colleagues,

Ten years ago this month, I wrote you with the exciting news that we had received regulatory approval for the deal to create the new Random House. Of the many letters and memos I have written you since then about our company, today’s is the most personal.

It had been my dream since my school days to someday make books the center of my life and for the past ten years I have been living it. I have been immensely fortunate to lead a company like no other in trade book publishing. During this decade, building on its heritage, our authors, and your talents and commitment, Random House has sold more than four billion books worldwide, enriching the lives of readers; developed and nurtured unparalled original local-language publishing programs in nineteen countries and five languages; published over four thousand national bestsellers and eight new Nobel laureates and fifteen Pulitzer Prize winners; implemented a forward-thinking strategy for digital publishing; and become the standard-bearer in our industry for environmental responsibility.

These past ten years have been the best and happiest of my life. As wonderful as they’ve been, I still have one professional dream that remains unfulfilled: an academic life. While out of the office late last year recuperating from double pneumonia I reflected on what’s next for me as I near sixty—and when would be the right time to start to pursue it. With a 100 percent clean bill of personal health and our company completing its tenth year in a very strong and healthy state, this seems like the right moment for me to try something new.

Effective May 31, I will step down as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Random House worldwide.

My family and I are relocating this summer to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where we have bought an apartment in Harvard Square. I am in discussions for a senior faculty position starting in the fall with a full-time workload at a nearby university and I expect they and I will announce my plans soon. The challenge of working with students and the writing and research aspects of this prospective position are enormously exciting to me.

I am grateful to my longtime colleague, Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski, for understanding and supporting my wish to pursue this new direction for my life. I thank him and Gunter Thielen, Thomas Middelhoff, and Mark Woessner, his predecessors as CEOs of our parent company, for their willingness to invest in Random House and for their unwavering support of our editorial autonomy and our publishing business. I believe my successor, Markus Dohle, who brings a dynamic approach and a terrific track record, will build on our incomparable strengths and traditions to make Random House an even greater commercial and cultural success.

As I soon begin my transition from Random House CEO to Random House bookbuying consumer I thank all of you for your loyalty, support, and hard work. You have my utmost respect and appreciation for all you have done for our authors, our booksellers, and this great company.

I am honored and proud to have been your colleague. Working with you has been truly special.

Yours,