2025 Speaker Bios

Juergen Boos trained as a publisher at Herder Verlag (Freiburg) in the early 1980s and has degrees in both Marketing and Organizational Theory. He has held management positions at Droemer Knaur Verlag (Munich), Carl Hanser Verlag (Munich), as well as Springer Science and Business Media (today Springer Science) and John Wiley & Sons (Weinheim). He became President and CEO of the Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH (Frankfurt Book Fair) in 2005 and is President of LITPROM (Society for the Promotion of African, Asian and Latin American Literature) and Managing Director of LitCam (Frankfurter Buchmesse Literacy Campaign).

He is also a member of the Scientific Committee of Sheikh Zayed Book Award and a member of Akademie Deutscher Buchpreis (German Book Prize Academy).

Neal Carruth is the executive vice president and general manager of the Freakonomics Radio Network, where he focuses on growth strategy and network operations. Neal came to Freakonomics after more than two decades at NPR in a variety of roles including line producer of All Things Considered and Chief Business Editor. Neal also led NPR’s news podcasting strategy, which is built around major podcasts like Planet Money, Up First, and Embedded.

Dhonielle Clayton is the President and Founder of Cake Creative and Electric Postcard Entertainment, IP story companies creating diverse books for all. She is also a New York Times bestselling author of The Conjureverse series, The Belles series, Shattered Midnight, co-author of Blackout, Whiteout, The Rumor Game, and of the Tiny Pretty Things duology, a Netflix original series. A former elementary and secondary school teacher and middle school librarian, she is now Board Chair of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books. 

Michele Cobb is a partner at Forte Business Consulting, which provides Business Development services for the publishing industry, and through that she serves as Executive Director of The Audio Publishers Association, The Podcast Academy, and PubWest. She is also Publisher of both AudioFile magazine and MMB Media.

Gilbert Cruz is the editor of The New York Times Book Review, where he oversees all of The Times’s coverage of books, authors and the literary world. Prior to that, he was the editor of The Times’s culture section as well as its television editor. A New York City native, he previously worked at Vulture, New York Magazine’s culture site, Time Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly.

James Daunt, Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, outlines a blueprint for booksellers to “go local,” giving each store owner a unique vision and buying power. The result? A turnaround in sales and new bonds with customers.

Kelly Farber is the President of KF Literary Scouting LLC, founded in 2013. She founded the company after working in the foreign rights department at Sterling Lord Literalistic and then as a scout at Barbara Tolley & Associates.KF Literary Scouting represents over twenty publishers and film/tv entities internationally.

Kristin Fassler is the senior vice president and director of integrated marketing strategy for the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Penguin Random House, where she oversees the creation and implementation of the consumer marketing, branding, and social strategies for over 300 fiction and nonfiction titles annually. She has worked on campaigns for bestselling authors including John Grisham, Michelle Zauner, Diana Gabaldon, Julia Child, Bill Clinton, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and George R. R. Martin. She previously served as vice president and director of marketing and publicity at Simon & Schuster.

Jane Friedman is the co-founder and editor of The Hot Sheet, a paid newsletter about the book publishing industry. She has previously worked for Writer’s Digest and the Virginia Quarterly Review. Friedman’s most recent book is The Business of Being a Writer (The University of Chicago Press). Her expertise on publishing has been featured across countless media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, Wired, BBC, The Guardian, CBC, The Washington Post, Fox News, USA Today, and NPR. Friedman has also served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund. Learn more at JaneFriedman.com.

A digital marketing expert & early innovator in BookTok, Georgia’s work with publishers spans international marketing campaigns, the industry’s first creator houses and working directly with TikTok to launch the first TikTok Book Awards UK & Ireland. In 2023. Georgia launched her new venture, The Pitch Agency which harnesses the power of digital to deliver high-impact campaigns with an audience-first approach.

As Global Head of Publisher and Partner Relations, Lee Jarit oversees Audible’s global content acquisition strategy with respect to publisher partnerships and independent creator relationships through Audible’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). Lee has been with Audible for over a decade and held numerous positions across business affairs and content and publisher partnerships, collaborating with independent creators and audio publishers large and small, to ensure their work is made available to millions of Audible listeners around the world. He is also a member of the Audio Publishers Association’s Board of Directors. Lee began his career practicing corporate and M&A law for six years before joining Audible and the publishing industry.  Lee joined the publishing industry by accepting a job at Audible.

Jeff Kinney, author of the world renowned bestselling Wimpy Kid series, has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. Kinney spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C. area and later moved to New England, where he and his family own a bookstore called An Unlikely Story.

Amandeep ‘Aman’ Kochar is the president and group Chief Executive Officer of Baker & Taylor, the 196-year-old book distributor, content services, and software company. His expertise in education technology, publishing, domestic and international operations, and engineering, combined with a high-energy, results-driven approach, has helped him lead Baker & Taylor into the digital realm since joining the company in 2014. As the world’s premier distributor of physical and digital content, software, and services to public and academic libraries, B&T is uniquely positioned to make a difference in communities by helping the libraries that serve them. To help fill the representation gap, Kochar led the launch of Paw Prints Publishing in 2022, returning Baker & Taylor to its publishing roots. The publishing imprint shares stories inspiring and enlightening youth from all walks of life.

Jay Mandel is global head of books at WME and has been a literary agent there since 2001. He began his career at The Writers Shop (née the Virginia Barber Literary Agency) in 1994. Among the clients he represents are Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, iconic science writer Mary Roach, the twice Booker shortlisted Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid, essayist and novelist Sloane Crosley, the author of the international bestselling thriller I Am Pilgrim Terry Hayes, historian Alexis Coe, activist, writer and podcaster Amanda Knox, Atlantic contributor David Frum, syndicated columnist and co-founder of The Dispatch Jonah Goldberg, mathematician/writer Jordan Ellenberg, documentarian Ken Burns, journalist and historian Lesley MM Blume, and New York Times Magazine staff writer Sam Anderson.

Mary McAveney is a publishing veteran with decades of experience and expertise in marketing, strategy, and branding. In November 2022, she became President and Chief Executive Officer of Abrams, making her the first woman to hold the position in the company’s history. In addition, she sits on the board of Abrams & Chronicle Books, the London-based European arm of the two companies. Prior to Abrams, McAveney was the Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Revenue Officer at Open Road Integrated Media, where she led the efforts behind the company’s marketing platforms, leading to dramatic increases in sales. Her previous positions in publishing include senior roles at Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Zondervan.

Madeline McIntosh is a digital pioneer and book publishing executive who has played a seminal role in each of the major inflection points in the consumer book market over the past three decades, including the birth of ecommerce, digital audio, and ebooks. She is the co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Publisher of Authors Equity, a new company dedicated to reshaping the relationship between author and publisher. She serves on the boards of Simon & Schuster and Poets & Writers.

Ed Nawotka is Senior International and Bookselling Editor of New York trade magazine Publishers Weekly;.Prior, he was co-founder of Publishing Perspectives, a syndicated book columnist for Bloomberg News, literary director of the Texas Book Festival and a bookstore manager for Doubleday Book Shops. He has nearly three decades of experience reporting on the global book business and consulting for international arts, culture and media organizations.

Amanda Orenstein is Senior Manager of Strategic Insights lat the Knopf Doubleday Group at Penguin Random House,leading custom research and reporting for the group’s  authors, titles, and brands. Working across imprints, she utilizes a variety of data sources to bring actionable consumer audience insights to the Marketing, Publicity, and Publishing teams. Prior to PRH, she was a Senior Data Analyst at the agency VML, working with clients in the retail, technology, and pharmaceutical industries.

Elena Pasoli is Director of the Culture B.U. of BolognaFiere and Director of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Italian section of the International Board on Books for Young People. Recently, her work has focused on the international development of the Fair, including co-organizing the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) and developing children's illustration exhibitions in more than 40 countries. Previously, Elena was Events Manager at BolognaFiere and directed the Communications area of the University of Bologna Foundation. She has a degree in Classic Literature.

Since joining HarperCollins in 2012, Heidi has orchestrated many bestselling campaigns. Heidi also executes major publicity campaigns for the William Morrow Group and works with numerous high-profile authors including Karin Slaughter. Prior to joining HarperCollins, Heidi was a publicist at Berkley (Penguin Random House) and Scribner (Simon & Schuster). She is a graduate of the NYU SPS MS in Publishing program, where she also serves as an adjunct faculty member.

Keith Riegert is the Publisher of Ulysses Press and VeloPress Books. He is also a co-founder of the book publicity and digital marketing firm Pacific & Court and the printing marketplace Perfect Bound, as well as Little, Brown Lab and Kingfisher Press. 

Nadim Sadek is Founder and CEO of Shimmr AI, an AI-native business that generates and deploys automated advertising to drive sales for under-discovered books. Previously, he founded an AI-driven brand management platform, and Inish Turk Beg, an award-winning whiskey, food, and music business. Nadim also founded Sadek Wynberg Research, the world's largest qualitative market research company, sold to WPP. He led two global WPP networks. Nadim manages a Warner-signed artist and hosts a YouTube motorcycle review channel.

Yolanda Sangweni is a Peabody Award-winning podcast executive, lecturer and speaker. At NPR, she oversees arts and culture newsgathering and a portfolio of award-winning podcasts, including Code Switch and It's Been a Minute. She is also an adjunct instructor at NYU's School of Professional Studies. Yolanda has an extensive background in her 20-year career in media, having held various positions in publishing and podcasting.

(ms.) Charlie Schroder is Head of Original Content Development & Publishing at Scribd, Inc., where she leads reader-first, data-centric strategy, development, production, and promotional teams to deliver audio and text -based content. She is the company’s Content representative on cross-functional teams, including M&A, Subscriber UX, Content Discovery, Content Marketing, and Premium Content Business Analytics. She also serves as the Leadership Sponsor for the Women+ employee resource group and initiated the company’s AI Ethics Board, which includes representatives from all ERGs.

Previous notable corporate roles include Vice President of Marketing, Licensing & Development of global children’s publisher Candlewick Press/Walker Books, USA Vice President of Tokyo-based talent agency Creek & River (Nikkei JP: 4763), and Sales & Marketing Director of award-winning Deepa Studio, where she shepherded multichannel branding projects with Nike and Pfizer and lead the studio’s BrandHealth division.

David Shelley, previously based in the UK, started his career at independent publisher Allison & Busby in 1997 before joining Little, Brown as Editorial Director in 2005. Initially commissioning mainly crime and thriller novels and overseeing the audio and ebook lists, he became Publisher of their commercial imprint Sphere in 2007, then overall Little, Brown Publisher in 2011. Authors Shelley published include Mitch Albom, Mark Billingham, Carl Hiaasen, Dennis Lehane, Val McDermid, and J.K. Rowling. He became Chief Executive Officer of Orion and Little, Brown in 2015, and in January 2018 became Group Chief Executive Officer of Hachette UK, which is the second-largest consumer publisher in the UK. In January 2024, Shelley, now based in New York, started a new role as CEO of both HBG US and HUK. He is a past President of the Publishers Association, a trustee of the Reading Agency, and a director of Tate Enterprises.

Shanteka Sigers (she/her) is an Executive Creative Director turned Brand Strategist, with a strong focus on inclusion as a business imperative, social strategy, and leadership. She is also an O. Henry Prize winner, with her work appearing in The Paris Review, Best American Short Stories, and Freeman’s. In 2024, she combined her interests to create Good and Feral, a company that provides creative direction and strategy for books, authors, and publishers. As a former Director at Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and the Metaverse), Sigers led a team of creative strategists to enhance advertiser success on these platforms. As an Senior Vice President and Executive Creative Director, she created national campaigns for major brands such as McDonald’s, KFC, P&G, General Mills, Chevrolet, AT&T, Verizon, Allstate, and more. She teaches advertising at University of Texas, Austin.

Holly Smith is an industry-leading eCommerce strategist with over two decades of experience in book publishing. As the Founder and Principal Consultant of Expansive Commerce, she is known for her ability to drive explosive, profitable revenue growth on Amazon for book publishers and consumer brands. Smith combines her deep expertise with rigorous engagement in the broader field of consumer brand advertising and holds certificates in Executive Leadership from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Marketing Optimization & Advertising Research from the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). Previously, as the founding VP of eCommerce & Marketing at Callisto Media, Smith started and scaled the department, doubling revenue annually and contributing to the company's eventual acquisition by Penguin Random House/Sourcebooks. She has held prior sales leadership and marketing roles at Chronicle Books, TOKYOPOP, and Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Molly Stern is the Founder and CEO of Zando.  Previously  she was Senior Vice President and Publisher of Crown at PEnguin Random House, where she  launched Hogarth, a literary imprint conceived in collaboration with Chatto in the UK. At Hogarth, Molly published the bestselling, prize-winning work of Sally Rooney, Anthony Marra, Han Kang, and Herman Koch in the US. In partnership with actor and entrepreneur Sarah Jessica Parker, she launched the SJP for Hogarth imprint. Over the course of her career, Molly has published numerous literary prize-winners, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction and nonfiction.

Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of six books for adults: the novels This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, and Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. She is also the author of two picture books, Gaga Mistake Day, which she co-wrote with her mother, and Very Good Hats. Her work has been published in more than 20 languages. Straub and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.

Anna Tavis, PhD, is Professor and Academic Director of the Human Capital Management Department at the NYU School of Professional Studies, Senior Fellow with the Conference Board, and the Academic in Residence with Executive Networks. She is the co-author of Humans at Work. The art and practice of creating the hybrid workplace. (Kogan Page, 2022) Dr. Tavis’ latest book, The Digital Coaching Revolution (Kogan Page, 2024), launched in Spring 2024. She publishes regularly in the business media, is a former Executive Editor of People+Strategy Journal, and is currently an Associate Editor of Workforce Solutions Review. Dr. Tavis is a frequent presenter at international conferences on the topics of the Future of Work, People Analytics and Technology, Employee Experience, and Intelligent Automation in the Workplace. Prior to joining NYU faculty, she navigated a diverse global career in academia, business, and consulting.

Guest Director, BolognaBookPlus, a new division of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair devoted to adult publishing,  Jacks stepped down from The London Book Fai,r which she led as Director from 2013 to 2020..

Thomas began her career at the BBC before moving into publishing and has held roles at Simon & Schuster, Victor Gollancz, Michael Joseph and HarperCollins. Prior to joining The London Book Fair, Thomas was a partner at Midas Public Relations, heading up the corporate division for eight years. Thomas was previously Director of Communications, Europe for Reader's Digest, where she was responsible for re-launching the brand in the US and ran communications across 19 countries.

Carrie Thornton is SVP, Publisher of Dey Street Books. She joined HarperCollins in 2011 after high-level editorial roles at Dutton and Crown in the PRH Group. Thornton specializes in media driven non-fiction publishing, with a focus on memoir, lifestyle, humor, and music. She has acquired and edited dozens of New York Times bestsellers. A few of her titles include The Storyteller by rock legend Dave Grohl, The House of Hidden Meanings by drag extraordinaire RuPaul, Paris: The Memoir by tastemaker Paris Hilton, and international blockbuster Finding Freedom by royal reporters Omid Scobie & Carolyn Durand. Her upcoming titles include Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by award-winning Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield, and a two-volume memoir from global icon, Cher.

David Walter is in his fifteenth year in the publishing and data space, during which time his roles have involved metadata, business development, research and commercial functions.

Currently David leads the team at Circana that delivers book industry data and insights to publishers, retailers and content creators. Since 2022 he has been adjunct professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies, teaching on the Publishing Masters course.