Rubin Leaving Random House

-- Publishers Weekly, 9/24/2009 1:44:00 PM

Steve Rubin, who served most recently as executive v-p and publisher-at-large for Random House, is leaving the company. Rubin has been with the Random House/ Doubleday family for 25 years and had served as president and publisher of the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group until his position was eliminated in the restructuring that created the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in December. He was named publisher-at-large shortly thereafter.

In his statement, Rubin said he had a “tremendous ride” as part of Random and singled out for mention John Grisham, Dan Brown, Pat Conroy, Bill Moyers, Bill O’Reilly and Tina Brown. He said he has had discussions about other opportunities in publishing and is also considering an offer to write a book from “one of the finest publishers in the industry.”

In his memo about Rubin’s resignation, Random chairman Markus Dohle praised Rubin for having “one of the most accomplished and distinguished careers in our company’s history.” Dohle said that since becoming publisher-at-large Rubin has contributed to shaping Random’s global strategy and helped land several promising projects, including the book to be written by former President George W. Bush.