News | Penguin Random House | 06/19/2019

New Podcast with Penguin Random House Board Director Gail Rebuck

How important are books for society, and how does one discover the joy of reading in a house without books? n-tv presenter Isabelle Körner talks to Gail Rebuck about this and much more in the fourth episode of the Bertelsmann Business Podcast “Creativity and Entrepreneurship.”

For more than two decades, Baroness Gail Rebuck has been formative in the business of what is now the Penguin Random House book publishing group. A London native, she has had an eventful life. Her grandfather came to the United Kingdom as a poor immigrant and earned his first money with his own tailoring shop. “The early history of my family is marked by entrepreneurship. Education, on the other hand, was not a topic.” In conversation with Isabelle Körner, Gail Rebuck remembers her first visit to a library and how impressive this experience was for her. Many years later she presented her first charity initiative, World Book Day, which still attracts children to bookstores throughout the country to encourage them to read. “Reading, being curious, and constantly asking questions is essential to creativity.”

Gail Rebuck also talks about the death of her husband, who died in 2011 after a long illness. He chronicles his journey of suffering in the book “When I Die,” which continues to give courage to people in similar situations and help them face the blows life deals.  

This is the fourth installment in Bertelsmann’s “Creativity and Entrepreneurship” podcast series. In each 30- to 45-minute episode, top managers from the Group talk to n-tv presenter Isabelle Körner, give exclusive insights into their day-to-day work, and describe the importance of creativity and entrepreneurship in their work. The next episode will be released on July 3, 2019 on sites including Audio Now  , bertelsmann.com  , iTunes   and Soundcloud  . It will feature Hartwig Masuch, CEO of Bertelsmann’s music subsidiary, BMG.