Padmanabhan has 20 years of publishing experience. Whilst at PRH he served on the management executive and was responsible for sales, local acquisition and publishing strategy and local digital strategy. He will take up the position at the beginning of October following the departure of outgoing CEO PM Sukumar at the end of September.

Responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Collins India education business remains with Krishna Naroor, who will continue to report into Colin Hughes, managing director of Collins Learning, based in London. Naroor will work with Colin Hughes and Padmanabhan to define strategy and drive growth in this rapidly developing schools publishing business.

HarperCollins also announced the formation of a new HarperCollins India Board. The Board will include Charlie Redmayne, CEO, HarperCollins UK, Ananth Padmanabhan, CEO, HarperCollins India, Colin Hughes, MD, Collins Learning, Ed Kielbasiewicz, finance director of HarperCollins UK, Alex Beecroft, corporate development director, HarperCollins UK and Amit Abrol, finance director of HarperCollins India. As MD of Collins India, Krishna Naroor will also join the Board.

“I am delighted that Ananth is joining as CEO of HarperCollins India at this important time. He is an experienced publishing executive with a clear strategic mind and commercial acumen, which he combines with the energy needed to build on the brilliant work already done by our team in India. It is a time of real opportunity for HarperCollins India and I know that Ananth will do a terrific job in helping us grasp it firmly,” Redmayne said

Padmanabhan said, “It is a great privilege to have been offered this opportunity, at a time of such rapid change in the Indian publishing industry. HarperCollins is a company I have long admired, for the breadth of its publishing and, in Collins, its fast growing education business. HarperCollins has one of the most experienced and dynamic teams in publishing and I am greatly looking forward to working with them.”

HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 18 countries. With nearly two hundred years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 17 languages, and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles.