Charlie Redmayne, who left HarperCollins U.K. in 2011 to become CEO of Pottermore, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Digital Publishing venture, has been named CEO of HarperCollins U.K., effective August 5. Redmayne is succeeding Victoria Barnsley, who is leaving the position after 13 years at the publisher.
Redmayne will report to Brian Murray, president and CEO of HarperCollins Worldwide, and will sit on the executive committee. Murray said, “Charlie’s experience and success operating at the leading edge of publishing makes him uniquely qualified to lead HarperCollins UK in this time of tremendous digital opportunity.”
“I am delighted to be returning to HarperCollins UK,” Redmayne said in a prepared statement. “HarperCollins U.K. has some of the best publishers and editors in the industry – and over the last few years has invested in new skillsets to support those editors, producing a tremendous publishing business. I am looking forward to working with the team to build on that invaluable foundation.”
Redmayne left HarperCollins in 2011 to serve as CEO of Rowling’s new entrepreneurial venture, Pottermore, which holds all the digital and e-book rights to Rowling’s blockbuster Harry Potter book series. Prior to that, Redmayne held a variety of jobs at at HarperCollins Publishers, including Chief Digital Officer and Group Digital Director of HarperCollins UK.
Barnsley is said to have decided to leave the company after steering it through a restructuring of its international businesses, transferring the management of HarperCollins Australia, HarperCollins New Zealand and HarperCollins India to the U.K. to the U.S. The companies will now report to HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray.
While she has not disclosed her plans for the future, Barnsley said, “I’ve always wanted to time my departure so that I could leave the company at the right moment and in the best possible shape. Now is that time.HarperCollins is about to embark on a new chapter of its long history as part of the new News Corp, and I'm more than confident that its very talented teams, working with our best-in-class authors, will continue to go from strength to strength.”
