Markus Dohle

Media Mob just received an email sent out to all Random House North American employees from Markus Dohle announcing the departure of Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Edward Volini.

The text of the memo follows. Expect more on this soon:

TO EVERYONE AT RANDOM HOUSE NORTH AMERICA

It is with great regret that I inform you that EDWARD VOLINI has decided to step down as Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer and will leave the company effective September 30.

Ed has had a very distinguished career at Random House, beginning in May 1997 at Ballantine Books, where he rose to Executive Vice President, Deputy Publisher.  read more »

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Leon Neyfakh reports from Los Angeles' Book Expo America where Random House's new C.E.O., Markus Dohle said, “I am looking forward to becoming a real New Yorker."

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Los Angeles – Markus Dohle looked happy to be there, he really did. Clean-shaven and dressed in a stripey, light-gray suit, the sunny but intense 39-year-old walked around and smiled broadly at every person who shook his hand, and whenever anyone made a joke, he laughed with his whole body, sometimes even rocking back and forth. His auburn hair, punctuated with a playful blond streak, was slicked back and parted carefully on the side. He looked a little like a news anchor, with his tough jaw and dimples.  read more »

39-year-old Markus Dohle was installed as the new CEO of Random House yesterday morning; today, he sent a letter to his staff affirming his excitement and declaring his intention to preserve the company's "longstanding support for the independence of our publishers." There wasn't much in the letter besides that, except a short description up top of the weekend he spent in Los Angeles at the Book Expo. Mr. Dohle flew to L.A. from Germany on Friday, because, as he writes, he "couldn't wait I just couldn't wait" until his official start date "to begin [his] new job."

More on Mr. Dohle's time in LA in tomorrow's edition of Pub Crawl; in the meantime, the full text of Mr. Dohle's note after the jump.  read more »

Random House has a new CEO today. Markus Dohle, 39, officially started this morning after a weekend spent at the Book Expo in Los Angeles. Mr. Dohle has already spent some time here in New York since being appointed to his new position by the head of Random House corporate parent Bertelsmann, spending a week in introductory meetings with Random’s division heads and other executives during the week of May 18th. The meetings, during which Mr. Dohle is said to have used mostly to ask questions, added up to an informal crash-course in the book trade, which is new territory for the industrial engineering and economics major.  read more »