Riti Jagoorie to Succeed Thomas Abraham as Hachette India's New Managing Director in 2026

By: WE staff | Friday, 13 June 2025

• Riti Jagoorie has been named the next Managing Director of Hachette India
• She will take over for the company's original MD, Thomas Abraham
• After a distinguished 18-year tenure, Thomas is retiring

Riti Jagoorie has been appointed as Hachette India's next Managing Director, marking a major change in the company's leadership. She will take over for the founding MD, Thomas Abraham, who is scheduled to retire following a successful 18-year career. In January 2026, Riti will formally take over, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the publishing company Abraham helped found from the ground up.

After a successful tenure at Penguin India, Thomas joined Hachette India in 2007 and was instrumental in turning the INR 8 crore start-up into a thriving INR 100 crore business. Strong profitability and noteworthy hardback successes, such as bestsellers like Sachin Tendulkar's Playing It My Way and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, were achieved by the publisher under his direction.

Currently serving as Vice President of Product & Marketing, Riti began her career with the company in 2008 as a product manager. With 17 years of experience in the field, she has played a key role in growing Hachette's publishing imprints and spearheading wildly successful marketing campaigns for books like The Silent Patient and My Life in Full by Indra Nooyi.

"I'm honored to carry on Thomas's legacy and to lead a team that has built such a strong publishing brand," Riti said in her thank-you statement. Indian publishing is in an exciting period right now, and I'm looking forward to expanding on our success.

Thomas commended her for her "exceptional instincts for both books and business," while Charlie King, CEO of Hachette UK International, hailed her as a "razor-sharp commercial leader with vision."

With Riti’s appointment, Hachette India becomes one of the few significant publishing houses in the nation to have a female leader, which is a positive indication of changing leadership in the Indian publishing industry.