Forging Forward: The Pandemic
An Interruption, or an Opportunity to Rethink?

Deborah Ahenkorah Osei-Agyekum often wondered why the storybook characters she loved did not look like her. This was her inspiration when creating her own publishing house; African Bureau Stories is committed to providing opportunities for African writers and illustrators to publish locally and internationally. Deborah also established the Golden Baobab Prize, which over the past ten years has supported children's book authors and illustrators across Africa. She is a partner at Accord Literary which connects African authors to worldwide publishing opportunities and received the Global Pluralism Award in 2019. 

Bodour Al Qasimi is the President of the International Publishers Association (IPA), the CEO and Founder of UAE-based Kalimat Publishing Group, and the Chair of the IPA's Africa Publishing Innovation Fund Committee.

In March 2019 Bodour founded the PublisHer initiative, a worldwide community of professional bookwomen collaborating to counter the gender-based disparities that continue to be found among the executive echelons of publishing worldwide.

 In 2009, Bodour founded the Emirates Publishers Association (EPA) of which she is still honorary president, a role through which she has spearheaded national efforts to strengthen, protect and grow the UAE’s publishing industry. 

 In the United Arab Emirates, Bodour was the driving force behind Sharjah’s winning bid to be named UNESCO World Book Capital City 2019, and she has led many other social, economic and cultural development efforts, earning numerous accolades for her work.

 A committed advocate of the power of reading to underpin social development, Bodour’s Kalimat Foundation for Children’s Empowerment has provided thousands of books to children whose lives have been thrown into turmoil by conflict.

Witnessing her friends in Ghana dropout of school and get married at early ages, has motivated Kumuriowr Alira Bushiratu to become a youth activist working towards access to quality education for young children and girls. At only twenty two years old, Kumuriwor has contributed greatly to educational activism. She has been an ambassador for the World Literacy Foundation, a volunteer for the African Science Academy and Zurak Cancer Foundation for Liver Cancer. She runs the Learners Girls Foundation and is currently pursuing a BSC in Nursing at the University for Development Studies in Ghana. 

Porter Anderson  is currently Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives, by the German Book Office New York, which is the daily news medium for the international trade publishing industry. Formerly with CNN, CNN.com, and CNN International–as well as the Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, The Bookseller and other news-media outlets, he has been named London Book Fair’s International Trade Press Journalist in the fair’s International Excellence Awards.  In addition to his career in news coverage, Anderson has worked as a P5, Level 7 (laissez-passer UNLP) diplomat with the United Nations, posted to the world headquarters of the World Food Programme in Rome, and has served as Executive Media Producer of INDEX: Design to Improve life, the Danish government’s award for humanitarian design, a program that enjoys the patronage of HRH Frederik, Prince of Denmark. 

Kathy Bail is the Chief Executive of UNSW Press Ltd, a university-based company owned by UNSW Sydney that publishes about 50 non-fiction books each year. Its NewSouth Books sales division represents independent publishers in the Australian market, including university presses such as Princeton and Manchester, as well as Tuttle Publishing, Magabala Books, Sourcebooks and many other leading imprints. UNSW Press also manages the UNSW Bookshop on the Kensington campus of UNSW. Kathy Bail is a member of the Library Council of NSW, the executive committee of the International Publishers Association, the Trade Publishers Committee of the Australian Publishers Association and the UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture Advisory Council. She has extensive experience in print and digital media management as a journalist and magazine editor. 

Catherine Bell began her publishing career in the Puffin Marketing department at Penguin Children’s Books before moving to Ladybird and later Dorling Kindersley. She joined Scholastic 8 years ago as Co Group Managing Director and has enjoyed the challenges of running the publishing, education and schools businesses working with brilliant authors and illustrators and the Scholastic team in the UK and throughout the world. Ensuring children have access to books and are empowered to read for pleasure is a key focus and passion.  

Mette Caserta began her career at Egmont in 2014, the following year she was part of the team that founded Saga Egmont, and has since headed it’s international expansion for 5 years. Today, she does consulting for Saga Egmont, focusing on business development of the company, strategy, and distribution 

Richard Charkin is a former President of the IPA and the UK PA and for eleven years was Executive Director of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. He has held many senior posts at major publishing houses, including Macmillan, Oxford University Press, Current Science Group, and Reed Elsevier. He is President of The Book Society, Vice-Chair of Bloomsbury China’s Beijing joint venture with China Youth Press, and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair. He is a non-executive Director of Bonnier Books UK, Liverpool University Press, Institute of Physics Publishing, and Cricket Properties as well as founding his own business, Mensch Publishing. He is senior adviser to Trillium Partners and to nkoda.com. He lectures on the publishing courses at London College of Communications, City University, and University College London. Richard has an MA in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; was a Supernumerary Fellow of Green College, Oxford; attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School; and is a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London. 

Fathima Dada has worked in education all her life, her career bio can be presented in three segments: teaching and education, a corporate career, and government and NGO/development work. She has held almost every level of job in the education industry and is currently Manging Director of Education and Chair of the board for Oxford/AQA qualifications. As part of her government and development work she has been on many ministerial committees and overseen education reform and policy development in several countries such as Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia.

After spending 10 years working as a teacher, Stephan has been an educational publisher for 25 years, responsible for primary, secondary and vocational education. Previously being part of the managing board at Noordhoff, Stephan is now the director of the Dutch Association of Educational Publishers (GEU) and as of last year he is chair of the Educational Publishers Forum of the International Publishers Association (IPA).

Diego Echeverría has degrees in International Relations, Law and a Master’s degree in Business Law. He is the founder and CEO of Editorial Ink, the first 100% digital Mexican publishing company, and anager of Ink it, a platform that offers publishing companies distribution of e-books and audiobooks. Diego is considered the pioneer of e-books in Mexico by Forbes Magazine and is the youngest person to become a board member of the National Chamber of the Mexican Publishing Industry.

Véronique Fontaine has been leading the award-wining publishing house, Fonfon, since it was established in 2010. A digital creation specialist, Véronique is experienced in developing innovative literary projects, such as Fonfon apps and the Curious critters club. Her dedication to the Quebec book industry is well-known and she holds a number of industry positions; vice-president of the association nationale des éditeurs de livres (ANEL) and president of its digital, technologic and innovation committee and member of the Salon du Livre de Montréal corporation. Véronique is also a collaborator on various projects carried out by two university research chairs. 

photo credit: Yan Bleney

Nathan Hull is Chief Strategy Officer at Beat Technology and takes responsibility for its expansion beyond the Nordics. Already the pulse within Skoobe (DE), Fabel (NO) and Chapter (DK), Beat will soon be adding publisher-backed platforms in a further 6 markets in the coming months to add to its portfolio. Prior to Beat, Nathan launched the curated Dutch service Bookchoice in 9 markets and was Chief Business Development Officer at Denmark’s Mofibo launching in two further markets. Notably Nathan was also Penguin Random House’s Digital Product Director, with strategic responsibility for its award-winning digital portfolio and innovation strategy working closely with the likes of Stephen Fry, Jamie Oliver, Jeff Kinney, and Roald Dahl’s estate.

As well as being a hugely successful producer in Hollywood and Bollywood, Sidharth Jain is a serial entrepreneur, having founded what is now known as India’s version of ebay and founding India's first story company - The Story Ink. One year after founding the company it became India’s top book to screen company, with over 75 book to screen adaptation deals.  

Dr. Michiel Kolman is Senior VP of Information Industry Relations at Elsevier and former President of the International Publishers Association. Since joining Elsevier in 1995, he has held various core publishing roles in Amsterdam and Tokyo. He launched one of the first online journals in the industry in 1996: New Astronomy. Michiel was Managing Director in Frankfurt, Germany. For 10 years, he spearheaded academic relations for Elsevier, building up a global network of ambassadors engaged in strategic discussions with research leaders. Today he continues to engage with research and government leaders in his role as Academic Ambassador.  Michiel serves on the board of the Accessible Books Consortium that aims to make books available for the visually impaired. He is also co-chair of the  board of Workplace Pride Foundation supporting LGBTI workplace inclusion. He is the executive sponsor of Elsevier Pride and was listed two years in a row in the FT’s Top100 ranking of most influential LGBT senior executives. 

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Toronto’s Electrical Engineering program, Allen Lau went on to become the CEO and Co-founder of Wattpad. Prior to this he co-founded multiple companies within the mobile industry such as FeedM8, Tira Wireless and Two Small Fish Ventures. Allen is also a member of the Canadian Council of Innovators, advancing the interests of Canadian technology companies at all levels of government.

Rachel Launay started in her role as Country Director, British Council Italy in January 2020. Rachel has worked for the British Council for almost 25 years. She is a trained teacher of English, teacher trainer and specializes in Applied Linguistics. She began her career in East Asia - Thailand, South Korea and Hong Kong - before moving into academic management and broader cultural relations work in Portugal and then London. She has worked closely with the Foreign Office in London before moving to Berlin where she was Country Director Germany for 5 years. She is passionate about language learning and has spoken French and German from a young age. She is now learning Italian! Rachel has a BA in French and German from East Anglia University, a Post Grad Diploma in Management from Leicester University and an MA in ELT and Applied Linguistics from Kings College London. 

Felicia Low-Jimenez has worked in bookselling and publishing for over a decade. She is the Publisher at Difference Engine, an independent comics publishing house based in Singapore. She is also one half of the writing team behind the best-selling ‘Sherlock Sam’ series of children’s books. She believes that stories have the power to change the world.

Jane Mann has worked within the educational sector for over two decades. As Managing Director of the Cambridge Partnership for Education she works with governments, ministries of education and international development organisations to support programmes of education reform. Jane is a member of the Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement (University of Cambridge) and a BESA Executive Council member, as well as being a school governor. 

After graduating from Università Statale in graphic design and copywriting, Claudia Mazzucco started her career working in advertising agencies and sales roles. From 1997 to 2007 she worked as the Managing Director of the Edizioni Piemme-Mondadri Children’s Publishing company. She is now the CEO of Atlantyca Entertainment where she supervises staff and the commercial development of the business. In 2010, Claudia was awarded the Manager Woman Award for her new ideas for the expansion of children’s literacy. 

Caroline Michel has been the CEO of PFD since 2007. Before that she headed up the William Morris Agency in London for three years. She has over 25 years’ worth of experience in the industry and ran both Vintage at Random House and Harper Press at HarperCollins. She is Chair of the Hay Literary Festival, Chair of the BFI Trust, and Committee Member of the Arts and Media Honours Committee. She was a Trustee of Somerset House, and is a Fellow of the RSA and Vice President of the London Library.

Maliya Mzyece Sililo is the 2019 Ngoma awards winner for the Outstanding Female Creative Writer. She holds a degree in education from UNZA and a TEFL post graduate diploma from UWIST in Wales. She is retired having experienced teaching at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and is now a keen writer. She has written English text books, TV scripts, children’s stories in local African languages and in English, the latest being Koko Grows Food which was among the children’s books selected for the SDG Book Club – African Chapter. Notable among her fiction works for adults is a book entitled, Despite the Bruises, A collection of short stories which was published in 2019 by Sotrane Publishers. She first published a novella, Picking up the Pieces in 2003. 

Brian O’Leary is executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, a U.S.-based trade association that works to create a more informed, effective, and efficient book industry supply chain. He oversees the work BISG does to disseminate information, create and implement standards and best practices, conduct research, and grow membership from companies working throughout the supply chain. In 2020, BISG joined with Book Industry Communication (U.K.) and BookNet Canada to form the Green Book Alliance, dedicated to information sharing, joint planning, environmental events, and other initiatives around sustainability in book publishing. 

As director of Zanichelli Venture, the Italian leading textbook publisher Zanichelli Editore’s investment initiative, focusing on early-stage edtech startups. Enrico Poli works towards discovering and funding nascent companies with new and profound ideas within education and technology. Enrico’s role also consists of developing the company’s digital strategy and leading the creation of modern software.

In 1987 Dominique Raccah founded the company Sourcebooks, it started as a source of information for bankers but has now flourished into a publishing house. Publishing everything from adult and teen fiction to children’s books, baby names and college guides, Sourcebooks has hundreds of national bestsellers and is the largest woman-owned book publisher in America. In 2016 Dominique was named as Publishers Weekly Person of the Year as well as winning multiple innovation awards for her company. Dominique speaks internationally on innovation, the future of book publishing and entrepreneurship. 

From 2001 to 2015 Giorgio Riva was a visionary leader in the Publishing & Advertising Industry, serving at Rizzoli Corriere della Sera Group (RCS) as managing director of RCS Digital and Education as well as CEO of classified RCS companies. He is now CEO of Italian educational publisher Gruppo Editoriale La Scuola and a board member of the Italian Book Publishers Association. Giorgio is also a professor of Media and Publishing Business at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. 

Ameena Saiyid (OBE, S. I. Knight of Arts and Letters) was previously MD of Oxford University Press and is now the MD of Lightstone Publishers, which she launched this month. As well as being President of the Overseas Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ameena holds authoritative roles on numerous Pakistani university boards and is also the Founder and Director of the Adab Festival. In the UK, Ameena is a Trustee of the Vicky Noon Education Foundation, giving scholarships to Pakistani students to study at Oxford and Cambridge. 

Barbara Scheuer-Arlt has been Vice President Production at Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe Germany more than 5 years. She is also responsible for environmental initiatives within the group. Her career spans 25 years including an international role at Pearson. 

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published 19 books, 12 of which are novels. Her work has been translated into 55 languages. Her latest novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize; and chosen Blackwell’s Book of the Year. Her previous novel, The Forty Rules of Love was chosen by BBC among 100 Novels that Shaped Our World. Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow.

Shafak is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature. She is a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). An advocate for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of speech, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice TED Global speaker. Shafak contributes to major publications around the world and she was awarded the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people “who will give you a much needed lift of the heart”. Shafak has judged numerous literary prizes, most recently, the PEN Nabokov Prize and chaired the Wellcome Prize. www.elifshafak.com 

Annette Thomas is the chief executive of Guardian Media Group. Prior to joining GMG, she was chief executive of Web of Science Group where she successfully transformed the group and delivered rapid growth, leading it to list on the New York Stock Exchange as part of Clarivate Analytics. In 2007-2015 Annette was the chief executive of Macmillan Publishers Ltd and then Macmillan Science and education, one of the world’s leading academic and consumer publishers, where she oversaw a significant period of growth and the merger between Macmillan and Springer Science and Business Media. While at Macmillan she also founded Digital Science, a pioneering startup incubator serving the academic research community, and, as Managing Director of Nature Publishing Group, she transformed the business from regional, print magazines into a global, institutional digital information platform. She currently serves as a trustee of Yale University and as of 1 October 2021 will be an independent non-executive director on Pearson's Reputation & Responsibility Committee and the Nomination & Governance Committee boards.  Previously, she was non-executive director of Cambridge University’s Press and Assessment businesses.