Susan Petersen-Kennedy

Susan Petersen Kennedy "is the President of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

"Mrs. Kennedy has been President of Penguin Group (USA) since 2001. Recently she has focused on the expansion of the company with the addition of several new imprints including The Penguin Press, Portfolio, and Gotham. She has also appointed new leaders to key positions within a number of the company's well-established imprints: she named Ivan Held, President and Publisher of G.P. Putnam & Sons; Brian Tart, Publisher of Dutton; and Geoff Kloske, Publisher of Riverhead. Her primary focus remains writers, readers and the people who connect them.

"Prior to accepting her current role as President, Mrs. Kennedy was Chairman and Publisher of Viking Penguin, where her goal was to focus and extend the established strengths of each imprint following the Penguin Putnam merger in 1997.

"Kennedy originally joined the Putnam Berkley Group in 1994 to strengthen its non-fiction presence and to establish her own hardcover and trade paperback publishing house, Riverhead Books. In less than three years, she guided Riverhead from start-up to profitability.

"From 1982 to 1992, Mrs. Kennedy was Executive Vice President of Random House, Inc. and President of the Ballantine Publishing Group. Under her management, the division increased its gross revenue fivefold and quadrupled its profitability. Mrs. Kennedy handled Ballantine's acquisition of Fawcett Books and House of Collectibles, and founded Ivy Books and the award-winning One World imprint.

"Mrs. Kennedy has been a past member of the Visiting Committee for Harvard University Press and a member of the Freedom to Publish Committee (an organization within the International Publisher's Association set up to investigate censorship throughout the world). She has served as a board member of the Association of American Publishers and as a former chair of its paperback publishing division. She has also served as a member of the advisory board of the Women's Rights Project, a part of Human Rights Watch.

"A native of Nebraska, Mrs. Kennedy is a cum laude graduate of Vassar College. She also holds an M.F.A. from New York University.“


 * Member, Human Rights Watch Women's Rights Advisory Committee