2027 Speaker Bios

Senior Vice President, Director of Publicity and Strategic Communications
Random House Publishing Group, Penguin Random House

Susan Corcoran is Senior Vice President and Director of Publicity and Strategic Communications for the Random House Publishing Group at Penguin Random House, where she leads the company's publicity, public relations, events, podcast, and talent relations teams.

For more than three decades, Susan has been at the forefront of how books and authors reach readers, helping to shape the evolution of book publicity through periods of profound change in media, technology, and audience behavior. Throughout her career, she has led publicity campaigns for many of today's most influential authors, public figures, and thought leaders. Working at the intersection of editorial, marketing, and media, she advises on publishing strategy, identifies emerging opportunities, and develops campaigns that expand the reach and cultural impact of books and their authors.A passionate advocate for developing talent, Susan leads a peer mentoring program dedicated to cultivating the next generation of publishing leaders.

Senior Vice President and Director of Marketing Strategy and Engagement
Random House Publishing Group at Penguin Random House U.S

Kristin Fassler is the senior vice president and director of marketing strategy and engagement for the Random House Publishing Group at Penguin Random House U.S. She oversees the creation and implementation of the consumer marketing, branding, and social strategies for 900 fiction and nonfiction titles annually, and supervises a staff that works on title marketing, marketing design, consumer insights, websites, and newsletters.  With over 30 years of industry experience, Kristin has held a variety of jobs in sales, marketing, and publishing strategy, and has worked on campaigns for bestselling authors including John Grisham, Danielle Steel, Diana Gabaldon, Julia Child, Dan Brown, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and George R. R. Martin.

Executive Director, Content Creation & Strategy
HarperCollins Publishers

Sam Fox is a writer, marketing and brand strategist, and social media expert. She’s the Executive Director of Content Creation & Strategy at HarperCollins Publishers, leading social media, influencer partnerships, and brand strategy for brands and imprints including Epic Reads, William Morrow, Avon, Harper Voyager, HarperKids, and more. During her six years as the Director of Brand Marketing at Teen Vogue and Them, she earned recognitions including Condé Nast Brand Marketer of the Year. As a mentor at Girls Write Now, she helps young writers cultivate their voices.

CEO
Simon & Schuster

Greg Greeley was named Chief Executive Officer of Simon & Schuster in March 2026. Prior to joining Simon & Schuster, Greeley had an extensive career across multiple industries and multinational businesses, including a nearly 19-year tenure at Amazon. During that time he held a variety of senior roles, including leadership of the company’s global Books and Media business during a formative period of growth. In that capacity, he and his teams pioneered print-on-demand publishing, launched the company’s self-publishing platform, and expanded the company’s audiobook production and global books marketplace capabilities through various acquisitions. During his tenure at Amazon, Greeley also led the company’s international expansion efforts across multiple regions. He helped create and launch Amazon Prime. Following Amazon, Greeley served as President of Airbnb’s Homes business, overseeing the company’s global marketplace across more than 190 countries. He later served as President and COO of biotech automation company Opentrons,and later as CEO of Thrasio. He has also served as an investor and advisor to a range of technology and consumer companies, including work with venture firms such as Tapas Capital and TCV.

VP and Publisher
Forever imprint (Grand Central Publishing, HBG)

Leah Hultenschmidt is the VP and Publisher of the Forever imprint at Grand Central Publishing, specializing in romance and highly commercial fiction. Her acquisitions include the million-copy bestsellers If He Had Been With Me, Just for the Summer, and Quicksilver, and she has acquired and edited New York Times bestselling authors such as Abby Jimenez, Kennedy Ryan, Callie Hart, Navessa Allen, James Patterson, Laura Nowlin, Mia Sheridan, and Farrah Rochon across her career. Before joining Grand Central, she worked at Sourcebooks acquiring romance and YA, and at Dorchester Publishing in marketing, publicity, and editorial roles.

Head of Learning Partnerships (TBC)
YouTube

Dean Kowalski leads Learning Partnerships at YouTube.  In this role, he is focused on working with YouTube's top educational partners to drive YouTube Learning’s initiatives to responsibly deliver YouTube content to everyone, everywhere they learn. Prior to YouTube, Dean worked at Google supporting small businesses and taught 9th grade Algebra I via Teach for America.  Along the way, Dean competed on the 39th season of CBS's Survivor. He is an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University School of Education and Columbia University.

Founder
Zon Publishing

Cam Lennon is the founder of Zon Publishing and a leading Amazon strategist for book publishers as well as an expert in AI. Known in the industry as Camazon, he helps publishers see inside the Amazon machine. He understands how algorithms, signals and customer behaviour turn into tangible results and revenue for publishers like Harvard University Press, Yale University Press, DK, Nosy Crow and many more.

Sub-Industry Leader, Advertising and Publishing
Amazon Web Services

Stephanie Leyser, a strategist and subject matter expert in publishing and advertising technology, serves as Global Sub-Industry Leader, Publishers & Advertising, for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media, Entertainment, Games, and Sports. As. Prior to this role, she was the Vice President of Data, Identity and Ad Tech Products and Platforms at News Corp, serving as a lead to their portfolio of companies including Wall Street Journal, Realtor.com and News UK. In her 15 years in ad tech, she has consulted for dozens of media companies and ran programmatic at multiple media companies including DailyMail.com and New York Post. Throughout her career, she has been an industry thought leader for publishers.

President and CEO
Abrams Books

Mary McAveney is a publishing veteran with decades of experience and expertise in marketing, strategy, and branding. In November 2022, she became President and CEO of Abrams, making her the first woman to hold the position in the company’s history. Her appointment marked a return to Abrams after 30 years, having started her publishing career there in the sales and marketing department. 

As President and CEO of Abrams, McAveney oversees the company’s three divisions—Abrams, Abrams Children’s Books, and Abrams ComicArts—as well as the Abrams Distribution Client business. 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.. Her previous positions in publishing include senior roles at Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Zondervan, as well as numerous consulting positions with media companies, internet start-ups, and publishers. 

President
Bloomsbury Publishing US

Sabrina McCarthy is President of Bloomsbury US and also serves on Bloomsbury’s global Executive Committee. Sabrina oversees Bloomsbury’s Consumer publishing division in the Americas as well as the sales and marketing strategy for the Bloomsbury Academic division in the same territory. She joined Bloomsbury in April 2024 from Ingram Publisher Services where she was Vice President and General Manager leading domestic and international sales, digital strategy, client services, and the business operations team.Sabrina began her career as the fifth employee of the Perseus Books Group where she went on to become the President of Perseus Distribution client services and then the Senior Vice President of Sales overseeing sales and inventory planning. Sabrina is currently on the Board of Directors for the Association of American Publishers and on the NYU Center for Publishing, Writing, and Media Board of Advisors.

Founder and Executive Chairman,
Union Square Hospitality Group 
Chairman of the Board, Shake Shack

Danny Meyer is the New York Times bestselling author of Setting the Table, The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.

A book on his leadership philosophy of Enlightened Hospitality; the founder of Shake Shack, which he began as a hot-dog cart in Madison Square Park; and the founder of Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG), which has created some of New York’s most beloved and acclaimed restaurants, including Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, Maialino, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla and more. He has been named a TIME 100 Most Influential Person and won the 2017 Julia Child Award; USHG has won twenty-eight James Beard Awards.

Senior News and International Editor
Publishers Weekly

Ed Nawotka is Senior News and International Editor of New York trade magazine Publishers Weekly. A widely published essayist and critic, he has nearly three decades of experience reporting on the global book business and consulting for international arts, culture and media organizations.  When not traveling, he divides his time between Texas and Vermont. View an archive of his work

President
The Stable Book Group

Keith Riegert is the President of The Stable Book Group, which includes Ulysses Press, She Writes Press, VeloPress Books, Trafalgar Square Books, and Skybox Press, as well as Stable Distribution (in partnership with Hachette Book Group). Keith is also CEO of Perfect Bound Technologies Corporation and a co-founder of the book publicity and digital marketing firm, Pacific & Court. Keith is a member of the board of advisors at NYU’s Center for Publishing, Writing, and Mediawhere he also teaches Analytics and Consumer Insights. Keith also serves on the board of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). 

Editor and EVP/Publisher
Random House

Andy Ward is Executive Vice President, Publisher for Random House. He has been at Random House since 2009, and before that spent almost fifteen years as an editor in magazines. Among the books he has edited are When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss, Passing for Human by Liana Finck, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Zero Fail by Carol Leonnig, Edison by Edmund Morris, and How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue.

Vice President, Insights & Analytics
Penguin Random House

Reid Welsh is Vice President, Insights & Analytics at Penguin Random House. He joined the company in 2015 and works closely with the PRH Executive and Sales Management teams, and across all of the publishing divisions. Reid provides marketplace and strategy insights for Publishing, Sales, and Finance, and oversees the Business Intelligence program at PRH.. Prior to joining PRH, Reid worked in Corporate Marketing at Simon & Schuster and as a bookseller at the Learnèd Owl Bookshop in Hudson, Ohio. He holds a B.A. in Studio Art from St. Olaf College and a certificate in Data Science from Harvard Business School Online.