Portfolio
Overview
Since Portfolio was founded by Adrian Zackheim in 2001, it has emerged as a major force in nonfiction publishing for ambitious people. We connect readers with powerful ideas that inform and improve their lives, within the workplace and beyond. Portfolio authors are innovators, entrepreneurs, and experts who aren’t afraid to take risks and change the world, and who reflect the diversity of voices, identities, experiences, and goals we see in our community of readers.
We strive to produce original books in fields such as technology, economics, entrepreneurship, biography, and investigative journalism, with a focus on educating and inspiring a new generation of innovative leaders.
Bestsellers
New Releases
Nonfiction Books for Ambitious People
Meet the Team
Adrian Zackheim, Founder, President, and Publisher
Adrian Zackheim joined Penguin Group in September 2001 as Founder and Publisher of Portfolio. He then took on the additional challenge of starting Sentinel in April 2003. In 2018, he announced the addition of another new imprint to the group: The Optimism Press, in collaboration with Simon Sinek.
Previously, he was the Associate Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of HarperInformation, a division of HarperCollins that included HarperBusiness. His editorial career has also included positions at William Morrow, Doubleday, and St. Martin’s Press, and his first job was as School and Library Publicity Assistant at G.P. Putnam’s Sons, which was then a privately held small publishing company. He later moved to Putnam’s Editorial department under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Phyllis Grann.
Among the many bestselling books he edited and published before joining Penguin Group were Good to Great by Jim Collins; Die Broke by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine; The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams; The HP Way by David Packard; and Swim with the Sharks without being Eaten Alive by Harvey Mackay.
Adrian's Featured Titles
Niki Papadopoulos, VP and Editor in Chief
Niki Papadopoulos joined Portfolio in 2011 as a Senior Editor, and is a passionate advocate for business as a tool for empowerment, innovation, and social good. In addition to overseeing general acquisition strategy for the Portfolio imprint, she acquires and edits a wide range of commercial nonfiction for ambitious people, from idea-driven business books to narrative, biography, memoir, investigative journalism, and self-help. In the last decade she has published twelve New York Times bestsellers and seventeen Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including This Is Marketing by Seth Godin; The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday; The Four by Scott Galloway; Captivate by Vanessa Van Edwards; Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke; The Death of Money by James Rickards; Hooked by Nir Eyal; and American Kingpin by Nick Bilton. She tweets about grammar, dogs, and what happens to authors who don’t turn their manuscripts in on time at @niki_pop.
Niki's Featured Titles
Margot Stamos, Director of Publicity and Marketing
Margot Stamas joined Portfolio in 2012. As Director of Publicity and Marketing, Margot is responsible for overseeing the promotional strategy across the Portfolio, Sentinel, and Optimism lists. She has led bestselling campaigns for Sophia Amoruso’s #GIRLBOSS, Marie Forleo’s Everything Is Figureoutable, Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism, Emily Chang’s Brotopia, Gregory Zuckerman’s The Man Who Solved the Market, and more.
Bria Sandford, Executive Editor
Bria Sandford joined Portfolio in 2012. She enjoys editing leadership narratives, economic policy, geopolitics, history, and prescriptive career guides. Her bestselling authors include retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal, political scientist Ian Bremmer, and career advice guru Jon Acuff. She tweets at @blsandford.
Bria's Featured Titles
Trish Daly, Senior Editor
Trish Daly joined Portfolio in 2019 with a focus on narrative and platform-driven nonfiction, especially business and economics, current affairs, big ideas, journalism, and the occasional memoir. She began her career at HarperCollins, where she acquired Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film, and later worked at Little, Brown with the world’s bestselling author, James Patterson. At Portfolio she has edited a range of standout authors, from award-winning journalists to game-changing leaders and experts, and is especially drawn to books that inspire and motivate or storytelling that sheds light on a larger conversation or issue. A graduate of Boston College, Trish teaches for NYU’s Center for Publishing as an adjunct professor.
Trish's Featured Titles
Noah Schwartzberg, Senior Editor
Noah joined Portfolio in 2019. He brings more than ten years of experience as an acquisition editor for McGraw-Hill, Cambridge University Press, and Fairchild Books. His areas of focus include business, economics, finance and investing, and politics. His authors run the gamut from generals to journalists, economists to entrepreneurs. He’s especially interested in stories that shine a light on critical but overlooked issues at the intersection of business and society.
Noah's Featured Titles
Merry Sun, Editor
Merry Sun joined Portfolio in 2015. She publishes brilliant thinkers who are on a mission to share their ideas with smart, hungry readers. Topics in economics, social psychology, finance, technology, and the food business by academics and journalists interest her most. She also acquires practical non-fiction by smart and singular voices with a bold message. Her bestselling, award-winning authors include Wall Street Journal reporter Gregory Zuckerman, Harvard Business School professor Laura Huang, DEI leader Y-Vonne Hutchinson, serial entrepreneur and advocate Kathryn Finney, Eleven Madison Park cofounder and restauranteur Will Guidara, MacArthur Genius and MIT economist Amy Finkelstein, and Stanford economist Liran Einav.
Merry's Featured Titles
Megan McCormack, Editorial Assistant
Megan McCormack joined Portfolio in January 2021. She is interested in narrative and idea-driven nonfiction that teaches us about the human mind or human behavior in unexpected ways. Always curious and eager for new knowledge, she is drawn to learning from the experts on surprising subcultures, business scandals and corporate underbellies, and the intersection of tech and feminism.
Kimberly Meilun, Assistant Editor
Kimberly Meilun joined Portfolio in 2019 after working in anti-financial crime consulting and criminal defense. She’s interested in acquiring books by leaders who are reforming systems and institutions, prescriptive business and personal development books by female authors with strong voices and points of view, prescriptive and inspirational books by and for ambitious creatives, and idea-driven books about mindset or behavior shifts with large impact. Her authors include the founder of the Bail Project and the Bronx Defenders, Robin Steinberg, internationally-recognized DEI consultant, Deanna Singh, Lyrical Lemonade founder, Cole Bennett, and time management expert and bestselling author, Laura Vanderkam.
Kimberly's Featured Titles
Veronica Velasco, Editorial Assistant
Veronica Velasco joined Portfolio in September 2021. She is repeatedly drawn towards nonfiction that aims to help us better connect with each other, professionally and personally, through idea-driven books and compelling narratives. With a particular interest in journalism, politics, psychology, sociology, feminism, and self-help, she is eager to seek out books with stories that aim to broaden our understanding of one another and teach us how to be better and more open-minded leaders, partners, employees, and people.
Megan Wenerstrom, Editorial Assistant
Megan Wenerstrom joined Portfolio in May 2022, after five years as a high school English teacher. She is interested in politics, history, education policy, and compelling investigations into the worlds of business, finance, and technology.