Bloomsbury's Harry Potter-era founder Nigel Newton plots CEO handover after 40 years

Sept 8 (Reuters) - Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury Publishing said on Tuesday that founder Nigel Newton will become executive chairman under a five-year succession plan that includes appointing a new CEO within the next two years. 

Newton, who co-founded Bloomsbury 40 years ago and floated it on the London Stock Exchange in 1994, will oversee the appointment of his successor and remain executive chairman for the first three years of their tenure before becoming non-executive chairman in 2031.

One of Newton's defining moments was acquiring the rights to J.K. Rowling's first "Harry Potter" book after several publishers had rejected it, helping turn Bloomsbury into a global publishing success.

Under Newton, Bloomsbury has grown into a FTSE 250 group, with its shares rising roughly 24-fold since its 1994 listing to close at 628 pence on Monday.

San Francisco-born and Cambridge-educated, Newton is one of Britain's longest-serving chief executives. He left publishing company Sidgwick & Jackson in 1986 to start Bloomsbury with three other publishers.

As part of the succession plan, Chairman John Bason will become deputy chairman and senior independent director, and will also lead the CEO search.

The changes come as Bloomsbury navigates an AI-led digital expansion, having struck licensing partnerships with companies such as Google and moved into academic and professional publishing.

Bason said the transition showed the board addressing succession planning, adding that Newton's continued leadership would help ensure Bloomsbury remained a leading independent publisher.

(Reporting by Atharva Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)