Hachette Book Group has hired Beth Ford (left) away from Scholastic to serve as the company's new chief operating officer at the executive vice-president level. After the double retirement of Maureen Egen and Rick Hall, says Hachette chairman David Young, the company was on the lookout for a new COO, and Ford has "the right mix of skills and experience that that role demands."

Ford, meanwhile, says she's "excited about the opportunity to continue to build on the strong operating capability at Hachette, with a view towards building a world class supply chain." Supply chains being a specialty of hers at Mobil, McDonald's, and Pepsi Bottling Group before she joined Scholastic, where she rose to the level of senior v-p for global operations and information technology, and was also recognized as one of Crain's New York Business' "40 Under 40," which is where we got the headshot.