The Foundation Elects W. W. Norton & Company’s President, Julia A. Reidhead, to Board of Directors

NBF welcomes Reidhead to its Board of Directors and the Board elects longtime member PD Villarreal as Treasurer

The National Book Foundation announced the appointment of Julia A. Reidhead, Chairman and President of W. W. Norton & Company, to the Board of Directors. The Foundation also announced today that attorney and longtime board member PD Villarreal has been elected Treasurer and will continue to serve on the Foundation’s Executive Committee.

These appointments follow the retirement of W. Drake McFeely, W. W. Norton & Company’s former President and Chairman, who served as the Foundation’s Treasurer and had been a member of the Board of Directors for thirteen years.

“We thank Drake McFeely for his years of outstanding service to the Foundation,” said David Steinberger, Chair of the Board of Directors. “We are gratified to welcome Julia A. Reidhead, continuing W. W. Norton & Company’s presence on the Board, and we thank our Board colleague PD Villarreal for taking on the added responsibility of succeeding Drake as Treasurer.”

“It is a privilege and a joy to be able to lend my expertise to the National Book Foundation as its newest Board member,” said Julia A. Reidhead, Chairman and President of W. W. Norton & Company. “The Foundation is responsible for not only honoring authors through the Awards, but also bringing reading and books to people everywhere through its many programs. I’m eager to support that mission and to continue W. W. Norton’s place in this talented group of individuals.”

“Being part of the National Book Foundation’s Board of Directors for almost 15 years has been a truly rewarding experience,” said PD Villarreal. “I’m honored to support the organization’s mission, and I look forward to the expansion of my involvement in this new role as Treasurer, and continuing to uplift the many facets of the Foundation.”

“Both of these new appointments to our Board of Directors are an exciting start to the new year,” said Jordan Smith, Interim Executive Director of the National Book Foundation. “Having these esteemed individuals serving on the Board of Directors, working to amplify the Foundation’s work of celebrating the best literature in America and expanding its audience, makes us a stronger organization.”

With the addition of Julia Reidhead and the recent appointment of the Foundation’s former Executive Director and current Senior Vice President and Publisher of Pantheon and Schocken Books, Lisa Lucas, the Foundation’s Board now stands at 20 governing members. In addition to David Steinberger and PD Villarreal, the current members of the Executive Committee are: Graywolf Publisher Fiona McCrae, Vice Chair; CNN executive Calvin Sims, Secretary; and Grove Atlantic President and Publisher Morgan Entrekin who had previously served as Vice Chair.

More information on Julia A. Reidhead and PD Villarreal can be found below.

Julia A. Reidhead is Chairman and President of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., the oldest and largest book publishing house owned wholly by its employees. She oversees all of the company’s departments, including Trade, with its critically acclaimed, award-winning works of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry for general readers; College, with its flagship textbooks in biology, history, economics, physics, music, composition, and other disciplines, as well as the legendary Norton Anthologies, read by 59 million students worldwide; W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., which makes the firm’s books available globally; and W. W. Norton Canada, which provides textbooks to the Canadian marketplace. She also oversees Norton’s imprints, which include Liveright Publishing Corporation, Countryman Press, Norton Young Readers, and Norton Professional Books for psychotherapists and educators. She is the first woman to lead the firm in its nearly 100-year history. In addition to her post at Norton, Reidhead chairs the Board of Governors of Yale University Press and serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of American Publishers.

PD Villarreal is a highly experienced litigator with a track record for successfully managing large, complex, and varied disputes across multiple industries. He has held senior positions at Allergan, GlaxoSmithKline, General Electric, and more. PD is a graduate of Columbia University (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and a graduate of Yale Law School. He has given guest lectures at Harvard Business School, Stanford Law School, Yale Law School, and Notre Dame Business School, among others. In addition, he has been widely recognized through numerous awards for his work in ADR, Litigation Management, and Diversity. In 2012, he was named one of the 10 Most Innovative Lawyers in America by Law360. He has served on numerous nonprofit boards including the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, the LatinoJustice Fund, and the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center. He is currently on the Board of the National Book Foundation.