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Random House group managing director Peter Bowron died suddenly this weekend, at the age of 40.
RHG chair and c.e.o. Gail Rebuck paid tribute today to "an extraordinary person", saying: "It is devastating to lose someone you value for their intelligence, warmth, support and friendship. It is doubly so, to lose someone so suddenly and so young. Peter was loved and respected throughout the industry and this is probably one of the most terrible losses of a young and popular talent that the industry has ever known."
Bowron began his publishing career as a graduate trainee at Hodder & Stoughton in 1989, moving to Simon & Schuster as European sales manager in 1993. In 1996 he moved to Penguin as paperback sales manager, later becoming sales director, and then in 2000, group sales director and the youngest ever member of the Penguin Group UK board. In 2005 he joined the Random House Group as group m.d., responsible for production, sales, distribution, IT and the Group's digital strategy and publishing.
Bowron leaves a wife, publisher Clare Ledingham, and three children.
Editor of The Bookseller, Neill Denny, writes: Peter Bowron’s early death has robbed the industry of one of its rising stars, a man whose career seemed destined to end as head of a major publisher. As group managing director at Random House Group he was already running day to day a huge slice of British publishing. Susan Sandon’s Cornerstone reported up to him, which includes Arrow, Heinemann and Hutchinson, plus all production, digital and sales right across the group. To have reached the number three job inside Random in his thirties was a clear sign of Peter’s huge talents.
He combined a shrewd judgement of character and situation with enormous ability and charm. Despite his elevated position one sensed he never took himself that seriously, and he was always ready to share a mildly subversive remark with a twinkle in his eye. He was very popular in the company, and had friends right across publishing, many from his years at Penguin and Hodder.
Often when people advance rapidly up the ladder you hear grumbles from those who they have overtaken; in Peter’s case I can safely say that I had never heard a bad word said about him, pretty much unprecedented in the gossipy world of publishing. He was a fine man and his loss will be felt keenly inside Random and across the trade.