Jen Harned, the President and Executive Director of Business Management & Publishing Operations for BOOM! Studios, will leave her post there at the end of January 2026. The news came in an announcement from Scott Shannon, President of Random House Worlds.
Harned came to the company as CFO in 2021 and was promoted to her current post in 2024, when Random House Publishing Group acquired BOOM! (see “Random House Completes BOOM! Acquisition”). She has a BBA from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and she had C-suite and executive positions in a number of non-comics companies, including Vista Outdoor, THQ, and Guitar Center, before coming to BOOM!
“It’s impossible to overstate Jen’s impact,” Shannon said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “The successful acquisition and seamless integration of BOOM! Studios into the Penguin Random House family simply could not have happened without her steady leadership and deep expertise. Guiding a dynamic, standalone company through such a complex transition is no small feat—and Jen approached it with vision, rigor, and heart.”
“Jen’s ability to pivot her experience into the comics and graphic storytelling space coupled with her ability to think several moves ahead while mastering every detail, and her intuitive understanding of how best to support creators and teams have been extraordinary to witness,” he added. “She has led with integrity, humor, and a collaborative energy that elevated everyone around her. Among her many contributions, navigating through the post-pandemic downturn in the industry, modernizing operational processes and procedures ahead of the acquisition, and managing external relationships with a partnership mindset stand out as testaments to her strategic insight and unwavering dedication.”
Source: ICv2
