Publishing executive from N.J. killed in boat crash in Italy

A publishing executive from Bergen County, who worked for the company that published the Harry Potter series, was killed last week in a boating accident off the coast of Italy’s Amalfi Coast.

Adrienne Vaughan, 45, was president of Bloomsbury Publishing’s U.S. branch. She owned a home in Glen Rock since 2013, according to public records.

Vaughan was the married mother of two children. Her children and husband, Michael White, were with her at the time of the crash, according to published reports.

The motorboat Vaughan and her family were on was rented through a skipper and had been headed to Positano when it crashed into a sailboat Thursday. The sailboat was carrying more than 80 U.S. and German tourists, including some celebrating a wedding, according to The Telegraph.

Vaughan was pulled from the water and brought to a dock but died by the time a helicopter ambulance arrived. Vaughan’s husband was hospitalized with a shoulder injury while the children, ages 11 and 14, were unhurt but treated for shock, according to the Associated Press.

No one aboard the sailboat was injured. Italian authorities are investigating the crash and reports said the skipper of the motorboat tested positive for substance abuse, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

The skipper, an Italian about 30 years old, suffered a broken pelvis and ribs, ANSA said.

Bloomsbury, which published the Harry Potter books in the United Kingdom, counts writers ranging from bestselling novelists Sarah J. Maas and Susanna Clarke to historian Mark Kurlansky among its roster of authors.

A Bloomsbury book, “Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South,” by the late Winfred Rembert (as told to Erin I. Kelly), won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2022.

“The loss of Adrienne is a terrible blow. Since she was appointed President of Bloomsbury USA three years ago, America has grown to become our biggest market,” Nigel Newton, chief executive of Bloomsbury, said in a statement. “Adrienne was a natural business leader with a great future ahead of her. She was deeply loved by colleagues due to her combination of great personal warmth with a fierce determination to make the business succeed and grow. Her business instincts were outstanding and she loved authors, readers and her colleagues equally.”

Vaughan, who had a master’s degree in business from New York University, had worked at the Disney Book Group and Oxford University Press among other companies before joining Bloomsbury in 2020 as executive editor and COO. She was promoted to president a year later and also served on the board of the industry trade group the Association of American Publishers.

“Adrienne Vaughan was a leader of dazzling talent and infectious passion and had a deep commitment to authors and readers,” the Association of American Publishers board chair, Julia Reidhead, and its president and CEO, Maria A. Pallante, said in a joint statement.

“Most of all she was an extraordinary human being, and those of us who had the opportunity to work with her will be forever fortunate,” the statement said.

The Associated Press contributed this report.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.