Sally Kim, president and publisher at Little, Brown and Company, wants to give everyone a seat at the table.
This article is part of a Women and Leadership special report highlighting women who are charting new pathways and fighting for opportunities for women and others.
When Sally Kim started in the publishing industry more than 30 years ago, in her experience, “only editors could sit at the table,” she said. “The assistants would stand behind them, listening.”
“I remember pitching a book I wanted to buy in a meeting where I wasn’t allowed to speak,” she said. “I was too junior. They were doing me a favor.”
Ms. Kim isn’t silent anymore. Nor is she standing behind anyone. Her seat is at the head of the table, as president and publisher of Little, Brown and Company, one of the oldest publishers in the United States, which consists of six imprints and falls under the Hachette Book Group umbrella.
A Korean American whose parents immigrated to the United States, Ms. Kim is the company’s first Asian American woman to hold that position. Previously, she was senior vice president and publisher at G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
She said she had spent the past year at Little, Brown and Company inviting everyone, regardless of their position, to pull up a chair and find a seat at the table.
“Giving everyone a voice is a priority,” Ms. Kim, 51, said, “so is reading projects together, weighing in and sharing their perspectives.”