Susan Petersen Kennedy
President, Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
Susan Petersen Kennedy is the President of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Mrs. Susan Petersen Kennedy has been President of the Penguin Group (USA) since 2001. Prior to accepting her current role as President, Mrs. Kennedy was Chairman and Publisher of Viking Penguin and Publisher of Riverhead following the Penguin Putnam merger in 1997.
Kennedy originally joined the Putnam Berkley Group in 1994 to strengthen its non-fiction presence and to establish a new hardcover and trade paperback publishing house, Riverhead Books.
From 1982 to 1992, Mrs. Kennedy was Executive Vice President of Random House, Inc. and President of the Ballantine Publishing Group. Under her management, the division increased its gross revenue fivefold and quadrupled its profitability. Mrs. Kennedy handled Ballantine's acquisition of Fawcett Books and House of Collectibles.
Mrs. Kennedy has been a past member of the Visiting Committee for Harvard University Press and a member of the Freedom to Publish Committee (an organization within the International Publisher's Association set up to investigate censorship throughout the world). She has served as a board member of the Association of American Publishers and as a former chair of its paperback publishing division. She has also served as a member of the advisory board of the Women's Rights division of Human Rights Watch.
Susan Petersen Kennedy is a true servant to the written word...words, ideas and stories. She loves her work: the problems, the people, the books. She has dedicated her life to writers, readers and the people who bring them together.
A native of Nebraska, Mrs. Kennedy is a cum laude graduate of Vassar College. She also holds an M.F.A. from New York University.
