Gary Davidson will join Hachette Book Group (HBG) as Hachette Nashville’s vice president of CBA sales and marketing.  Davidson will start at HBG on Jan. 7, and will report to Chris Murphy, senior vice president retail sales.

Davidson comes to HBG from Thomas Nelson, where he spent 15 years in leadership roles including senior vice president sales for the largest revenue-producing division at the company and senior vice president and Bible group publisher. During his tenure there, he led teams in winning several industry sales awards.

Rolf Zettersten, senior vice president and publisher of Hachette Nashville, said: “Gary’s joining HBG signals a new strategic emphasis on the CBA market and our confidence that Hachette Nashville can grow this area significantly. Hachette Nashville is one of the industry's largest adult trade publishers of Christian books with a phenomenal record of success in the general market. With this new focus on our CBA business, we will reach even greater heights and provide a superior publishing program to our authors.”

Citing “a record number of best-sellers” that the company’s Nashville division has experienced of late, Chris Murphy, senior vice president retail sales, said: “We have the No. l book in the CBA market—Joel Osteen's I Declare—and the division has had 12 New York Times best-selling titles this fall, including new books from Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Paul Young, John Maxwell, Mallory Factor, John Ramsey and Rand Paul.”