Who was Adrienne Vaughan? Net worth and more explored as Bloomsbury publishing house CEO killed in Italy boating accident

Adrienne Vaughan, the CEO of the American branch of British publishing firm Bloomsbury, was killed in a boating accident on Italy’s Amalfi Coast while vacationing with her family.

The office of the public prosecutor of Salerno, Marinella Guglielmotti, told CNN that the 45-year-old president of the Bloomsbury USA publishing house was on holiday in Italy with her family, including her husband Mike White and their children Leanna and Mason, 12 and 8, when she was tragically killed.

Detailing the incident, the prosecutor said that the family, who had rented a motorboat, were sailing on the Amalfi coast when another vessel named "Tortuga," carrying some 80 people, collided with Vaughan’s boat.

Vaughn, who fell into the water, sustained fatal injuries after she was hit by the boat's propeller. The 45-year-old mother of two was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene.

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Adrienne Vaughan's net worth is estimated between $500,000 to a $1 million

Adrienne Vaughan, who became head of Bloomsbury USA in 2021, first joined the firm which publishes the Harry Potter books in America in 2020 as an executive director and COO.

A graduate of NYU Stern School of Business with an MBA in finance, Vaughan previously worked as an executive for the Disney publishing group and Oxford Free Press.

According to the reports, Vaughan, who has had a successful career in the publishing firm, has amassed a $500,000 to $1 million net worth.

Italian authorities said that they are investigating the 30-year-old driver of the boat Vaughan and her family were on as a toxicology report showed he had more than the legal limit of alcohol in his system at the time of the collision. The driver was also injured in the incident.

The captain of the sailing vessel “Tortuga,” which was carrying wedding guests, including Germans and Americans, reportedly did not test positive for any substances. A wedding guest who was recording the celebration filmed the chaos that erupted after the crash.

Describing the aftermath, Pietro Iuzzolino, a bartender on the sailing ship “Tortuga”, told the Italian newspaper Corriere del Mezzogiorno:

“She didn’t have an arm and the nape of her neck was white as if no blood was flowing."

In the wake of the incident, PEN America issued a statement condoling the death of the CEO. They said:

"Adrienne Vaughan lent her extraordinary talent, passion and persistence to the cause of free expression and the freedom to read . Beyond her impressive publishing talents working with writers, she was committed to the idea that books are at the core of our civilized values. PEN America was grateful to have her as an ally in the current fight against efforts to censor books and idea"

Multiple reports stated that Adrienne Vaughan's husband and children, who sustained minor injuries during the collision, survived the accident.