In an interview late Monday morning, new Simon & Schuster CEO Greg Greeley said there has been no change in KKR’s original direction to grow the company.

At the time of KKR’s purchase of the publisher in late 2023, the private equity firm promised to provide S&S with the resources to support numerous growth initiatives—and that pledge remains, Greeley said. The new chief executive also noted that he was impressed by the KKR program that gives employees equity ownership in S&S, saying that in his experience companies where employees have an ownership stake do better than those where employees don’t.

Since the KKR purchase, S&S has made three overseas acquisitions, added a number of new domestic imprints, and greatly expanded its distribution business. Although the company doesn’t release sales information, it has reportedly added between 200 to 250 employees over the last two year, not including employees who joined the company has part of an acquisition.

His first move as CEO, Greeley said, is to embark on a listening tour with employees to get a sense of where S&S’s strengths are and areas where the company can improve. His first outreach to employees occurred Monday morning at an all hands meeting.

Greeley noted he will also be at the London Book Fair on Tuesday. He was a regular visitor to the fair when he was at Amazon and Greeley said he is looking forward to getting reacquainted with old colleagues and meeting new people.

He reiterated that he sees his mission as finding ways to connect people with books. Asked if there was anything from his Amazon days that he can bring to S&S, he said it would be the customer-centric approach that is an Amazon hallmark. For S&S, Greeley said, that means “to publish the highest quality books possible.” He also wants to develop ways “readers can discover books they didn’t even know they wanted.”

Greeley said he learned a lot about the S&S ethos in his talks with outgoing CEO Jonathan Karp and that he was looking forward to seeing what Karp will do with his Simon Six imprint. Karp told PW that Greeley’s “breadth of experience is exactly what S&S needs to move to the next level.”