Dohle steps down as PRH CEO

Bertelsmann, parent company of Penguin Random House (PRH), announced in December last year that PRH CEO Markus Dohle was stepping down from the role at the end of 2022, ‘and simultaneously resigning his seat on the Bertelsmann Executive Board, at his own request and on the best of mutual terms’.

Dohle’s successor as interim CEO is Penguin Random House US president and COO Nihar Malaviya.

Dohle was appointed PRH’s first CEO when the merged group was founded on 1 July 2013, having taken over as CEO of Random House in 2008.

Said Dohle: ‘Following the antitrust decision in the US against the merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, I have decided, after nearly 15 years on the Executive Board of Bertelsmann and at the helm of our global publishing business, to hand over the next chapter of Penguin Random House to new leadership.’

Bertelsmann supervisory board chair Christoph Mohn said Bertelsmann regretted Dohle’s decision to leave the company. ‘He has sustainably focused Penguin Random House on growth and profitability. Under his leadership, our book division more than doubled its revenues and quintupled its profit. The fact that our global book publishing group is in such a strong position today is largely thanks to Markus Dohle.’

Dohle thanked his colleagues and said he looked forward ‘to continuing to serve Bertelsmann in an advisory capacity’. ‘Today, I look back with gratitude, and forward with great confidence and joy: for Bertelsmann, for Penguin Random House, and also for me personally.’

Category: International news