Random House Australia and New Zealand, The Random House Group today announced the formation of a new ANZ Executive Leadership team under the joint stewardship of Andrew Davis and Karen Ferns.

Andrew, currently Chief Operating Officer of Random House Australia, and Karen, currently Managing Director Random House New Zealand, will take-up the newly created roles of Joint Managing Director of Random's Australasian companies from 1st December 2012 and will report to Brian Davies Head of Operations (UK and Overseas) The Random House Group.

Under their leadership, the new ANZ Executive team will comprise Julie Burland, Nikki Christer, Nicola Legat, Brett Osmond, Gavin Schwarcz and Paul Whittaker.

Andrew will take all operations reports in both countries, including finance, commercial, contracts and royalties, production, distribution, IS and HR. Paul Whittaker will now report to Andrew on all aspects of finance and operations in NZ.

Karen will take responsibility for all sales, marketing, publicity, product management and publishing. The publishing departments in Australia and New Zealand will continue to operate independently with Nikki Christer, Julie Burland and Nicola Legat reporting in to Karen. For both countries, Gavin Schwarcz will head up sales and Brett Osmond will head up marketing and digital. Publicity will continue to report separately to Brett in Australia and Karen in New Zealand.

Brian Davies said: "I'd like to congratulate both Andrew and Karen on their richly deserved new roles. The creation of a new combined ANZ executive team will allow our companies in both countries to reap the benefits of closer co-operation - from the maximising of marketing and publicity opportunities to sharing expertise across physical and digital publishing - whilst retaining their individual and unique identities.

"This has been happening on an informal basis for many years, and this restructure allows us to now formally recognise and strengthen the relationship."

Gail Rebuck, Chair and CEO The Random House Group, said: "I'm delighted that in Andrew and Karen we have the talent within our existing teams to promote to these exciting new roles, and I know they and the newly formed Executive Leadership team will get all the help and support they need from their colleagues across the Group. Our Australasian businesses make a significant contribution to our Group success and I am pleased to announce that we will begin recruiting for additional talent to add to the teams, particularly to support our digital strategy."