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Fran Owen and Mari Yamazaki are to join Bloomsbury, as a job share, in the newly created role of publicity director in the Adult Consumer division.
They will start at Bloomsbury on 21st April and will report to Nicola Hill, group director of consumer marketing and publicity. The role brings together the consumer publicity functions under their joint line management.
The duo join from Vintage, where they are the publicity directors for Chatto & Windus, Square Peg and Hogarth. They are the current holders of the British Book Award for Best Publicity Campaign for their work on Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. The campaign was also recognised outside the book industry and won, or was shortlisted for, PR Week Global, Campaign Experience, PR Week UK and Media Week awards. They have a combined 30 years’ experience in publishing and before working at Vintage. Owen worked at independent publisher Atlantic Books and Yamazaki at Penguin Press and Penguin General.
Commenting on the appointment, Hill said: "I have long admired Mari and Fran and their outstanding and innovative campaign work. I’m so delighted that this talented pair are joining Bloomsbury as the ambition and investment in lists continues to grow. We could not be more pleased to welcome them here to lead our brilliant adult publicity teams and to work with our amazing authors across our fiction, non-fiction and cookery lists."
In a joint statement, Yamazaki and Owen added: "We were very lucky at Vintage to have worked with wonderful authors and in a team where we were could nurture and grow our job share partnership. It is with much gratitude to Nicola and to Bloomsbury that we can take these next steps in our career together. We have long been admirers of the list at Bloomsbury and are delighted to join at this exciting time for the company. We look forward to meeting the team, help them build on their incredible success and to advocate for their authors in a time when we need books more than ever."