Gail Rebuck

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable

| name = The Baroness Rebuck

| honorific-suffix = DBE

| birth_name = Gail Ruth Rebuck

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1952|02|10}}

| office = Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal

| status = Life Peerage

| term_start = 18 September 2014

| education = Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle

| occupation = Publisher

| spouse = {{marriage|Philip Gould|1985|2011|end=d}}

| children = 2, including Georgia Gould

| alma_mater = University of Sussex (BA)

| party = Labour

| image = Official portrait of Baroness Rebuck crop 2, 2025.jpg

| caption = Official portrait, 2025

}}

Gail Ruth Rebuck, Baroness Rebuck {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE}} (born 10 February 1952) is a British publisher and Chair of Penguin Random House UK.Gail Rebuck works at PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LIMITED since 1 July 2013 currently as a Director (PUBLISHER) http://www.cbetta.com/director/gail-rebuck-4 She has served as a Labour member of the House of Lords since 2014.

Early life and education

Rebuck's Latvian-born Jewish grandfather, and her own father, were both in the London rag trade. Her mother was a Dutch Jew.{{Cite web|date=1998-04-04|title=Interview; Gail warning|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/interview-gail-warning-1154352.html|access-date=2020-09-21|website=The Independent|language=en}}

At the age of four she was sent to the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, London, where she learned to read and write in French before she did in English.Boyd Tonkin, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/gail-rebuck-power-behind-the-prose-2070134.html "Gail Rebuck: Power behind the prose"], The Independent, 4 September 2010. She graduated with a degree in intellectual history from Sussex University in 1974.{{Cite web |url=http://www.britishindustryawards.co.uk/index.asp?PageID=35 |title=Best of British Industry Awards - Gail Rebuck |access-date=28 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911064052/http://www.britishindustryawards.co.uk/index.asp?PageID=35 |archive-date=11 September 2011 |url-status=dead }}

Career

Rebuck worked for several independent publishers and ran a paperback imprint for Hamlyn, before putting her own funds into a new imprint, Century. After a merger with Hutchinson in 1985, Century Hutchinson was taken over by Random House UK in 1989. Rebuck was appointed chair and chief executive of Random House UK in 1991.

Rebuck was fifth in a 2006 Observer list of the top people in the British books industry,Robert McCrum, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/mar/05/features.review "Our top 50 players in the world of books"], The Observer, 5 March 2006. and at ninth place in a 2011 Guardian version of the list.[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/23/gail-rebuck-books-power-100 Books Power 100: Gail Rebuck #9], The Guardian, 24 September 2011. In February 2013, she was assessed as the tenth most powerful woman in the UK by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlvb/features/power-list-100 "The Power List 2013"], Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013.{{Cite news |date=2013-10-20 |title=100 Women: Who took part? |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-24579511 |access-date=2022-12-18}}

In February 2015, Rebuck succeeded Sir Neil Cossons as pro-provost and chair of council (the governing body) at the Royal College of Art (RCA); she joined the RCA council in 1999.{{cite web|title=New Chair of Council at the Royal College of Art|url=http://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/new-chair-council-royal-college-art/|accessdate=18 June 2015}}

Personal life

She was married to Philip Gould, until his death in November 2011. They had two daughters: Georgia Gould, who currently serves as the MP for Queen's Park and Maida Vale (UK Parliament constituency), and Grace Gould.{{cite news|author=Tim Adams |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/apr/29/georgia-gould-philip-gould-interview |title=Philip Gould: a good life and death | Politics |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 28 April 2012|accessdate=23 June 2017}}

Honours

Rebuck was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours,{{London Gazette|issue=55710|date=31 December 1999|page=10|supp=y}} and promoted to Dame Commander of the same Order (DBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.Graham Ruddick, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/5518038/Random-House-boss-Gail-Rebuck-leads-Queens-birthday-honours-for-financial-world.html "Random House boss Gail Rebuck leads Queen's birthday honours for financial world"], The Daily Telegraph, 13 June 2009.{{London Gazette|issue=59090|date=13 June 2009|page=7|supp=y}}

In 2014, it was announced that Rebuck was to become a Labour peer in the House of Lords, following in the footsteps of her late husband. She was created a life peer on 18 September 2014, taking the title Baroness Rebuck, of Bloomsbury in the London Borough of Camden.{{London Gazette|issue=60997|date=24 September 2014|page=18554}}