Joanna Prior

Joanna Prior has been named the new CEO of Pan Macmillan in London in 2021.
Prior has been managing director of Penguin General Books at Penguin Random House UK for the last 12 years where she has led the growth of an award-winning publishing house.

During that time, Penguin General has doubled in size, added new imprints, has won Publisher of the Year in 2019, has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction twice and the Booker Prize for Fiction for Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other, and has been responsible for many successful publications including Michelle Obama’s Becoming, President Obama’s A Promised Land, and Richard Osman’s franchise The Thursday Murder Club.

Prior also plays an active role in the wider industry, as a past president of the Publishers Association, previously chair of the Consumer Publishing Group and chair of World Book Day. She’s currently chair of the Women’s Prize Trust and vice-chair of the National Literacy Trust.