David Davidar - Publishing Career

Publishing Career

In 1985, after obtaining his diploma in publishing, Davidar was hired by Peter Mayer, then chairman of the multinational publishing company, Penguin, as one of the founder members of Penguin India. As its first Editor, and later Publisher, Davidar edited or published a distinguished line-up of authors including Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Suketu Mehta, Shashi Tharoor, Khushwant Singh, Vikram Chandra, Rohinton Mistry, Salman Rushdie, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Mark Tully, William Dalrymple, Ramachandra Guha, Nandan Nilekani and Romila Thapar. In the course of his career with Penguin in India, Davidar held a variety of senior positions, among them, Publisher, Penguin India; CEO, Penguin India; Managing Director, Dorling Kindersley India; and CEO, Pearson India.

In 2004, he moved to Toronto, Canada, as Publisher, Penguin Canada, where the authors he published included Philip Roth, Khaled Hosseini, John Le Carre, Stieg Larsson, Nadine Gordimer, Alice Munro, Fatima Bhutto, Amitav Ghosh, Margaret Macmillan, Zadie Smith, Kim Echlin, Hisham Matar, Joseph Boyden, Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul. In Toronto the various positions he held at the company included the following: Publisher, Penguin Canada; CEO and Publisher, Penguin Canada; and CEO, Penguin International, a division of Penguin Books that comprised Penguin companies in Canada, India, South Africa and the Middle East.

In August 2010, he moved back to India from Toronto to co-found Aleph Book Company, in partnership with Rupa Publications India, one of the country's largest English-language trade publishers.