Our team

CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Vic is Chief Executive of The Book Trade Charity and joined us from the charity Home-Start UK where she supported their partnership with John Lewis and Waitrose. Before that, she worked with Jaguar Land Rover delivering charitable partnerships and was Chief Executive of EIL UK, a youth education charity, part of a Federation afforded UN Peace Messenger status. She spends her spare time with her family and two dogs and enjoys bike rides, cooking for friends, travelling, Eurovision and a good book.

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Glenda is Operations Manager at The Book Trade Charity and oversees our grants and housing programmes. She is often the first person that you will speak to to find out more about our grants. She originally trained as a solicitor and has since worked in managerial roles in local charities, setting up a day centre for homeless people and leading a "back to work" project for people with disabilities and/or health issues. She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and adult daughter. She enjoys reading, modern art, films, spending time with her parents (discovering new cafes/combing the local charity shops for bargains!) and walking her Patterdale terrier, Hamish.

Finance and Admin Manager

Nicki joined BTBS in 2016 and says she loves working here! She enjoys reading so this was the perfect job to combine her love for books with her career in figures. Nicki has worked in charity finance for over 20 years and is ACCA qualified, she also has a degree in applied accounting. Outside of work Nicki enjoys spending time with her family, running, reading (or watching) murder mysteries, and going out for drinks and dancing!

Special projects

Keith joined BTBS at the end of 2010 to help with the management of a major refurbishment of The Retreat at Kings Langley, having worked with a building based Social Enterprise Company that had undertaken works on site previously. He stayed on look after the management of building and estate based projects for the Charity including the redevelopment of Bookbinders Cottages, N20.

CHAIR

Ian is Chief Executive and Publisher, Simon & Schuster UK and International. He has full responsibility for the publishing, editorial, marketing and sales functions of Simon & Schuster UK, publishing a full range of adult, children’s and audio titles in both printed and digital formats. The company currently publishes about 200 titles per year in first format, of which 20 percent originate from the parent company.

VICE CHAIR

“I have been involved in the Book Trade Charity for over 20 years, helping to raise funds through charity walks and other events while working as HR Director for Little, Brown as well as assisting with HR issues. I joined the Board of Trustees and became Vice-Chair three years ago and am also Chair of the Grants & Housing Committee. I have retained an interest in education and have been a School Governor for my local secondary school for over 15 years. I became Chair of Governors 5 years ago. Two years ago I became a Trustee of Barnet Carers. They are an independent charity offering advice, information, emotional and practical support for all informal carers who live or work in the London Borough of Barnet. They also have a separate arm which provides home care."

TREASURER

Emily-jane has worked in publishing for nearly 20 years, starting out in the Little, Brown Book Group Finance department, she was made Little, Brown Book Group Finance Director in 2010. In 2018 Emily-jane took on the role of Director of Group Financial Planning and Analysis at Hachette UK and is a Trustee for the Hachette UK Pension schemes. Emily-jane joined the trustees of the Book Trade Charity in 2016 and elected Treasurer in 2017

Isobel Dixon is MD and Head of Books at the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, where she represents writers from around the world, among them Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers and international prize winners. Isobel was a Trustee of the Book Trade Charity before taking on the reins as President in 2022. Her mission is to raise the funding and profile of the charity.

TRUSTEE

Jonathan has worked in the media industry for 38 years, twenty of which were as CEO of a division of Nielsen, the world’s largest market research company. He has a deep knowledge of publishing, media, research, data and information businesses and is senior advisor to Trillium Partners, a corporate finance advisory service. Jonathan is also non-executive director of Clays Ltd, the UKs leading printer of books, non-exec director of BIC, the UK book standards body, and President of Nielsen Book, a division of Nielsen, the largest research business in the world. Under his leadership, Nielsen became the global leader in the information, research and measurement of the book industry.

TRUSTEE

Meryl is Managing Director of the Booksellers Association, the trade body of the UK and Ireland, founded to promote retail bookselling. Her career at the Booksellers Association began with event and conference management. She later became Head of Membership Services, responsible for establishing programmes and campaigns. She is Vice Chair of the Independent Retailers Confederation, Policy Board Member of the British Retail Consortium, Executive Committee member of the European & International Booksellers Federation and a Trustee of World Book Day.

TRUSTEE

Jasmine Richards was named as a Rising Star by The Bookseller in 2020 and was also chosen as one of Oxford University’s Alumni Top 100 for her work to make publishing more inclusive. As well as an author, she is a former children’s publisher, screenwriter on PJ Masks and founder of Storymix. As Storymix’s chief series creator she imagines and produces children’s stories with diverse casts of characters in an organic, joyful and authentic way.

TRUSTEE

Samantha Smith is the Publisher for Fiction, Non-Fiction and Picture Books at Macmillan Children's Books. Previously she's held roles across marketing, publicity and editorial at Hachette (Little, Brown) and Scholastic. She has a Masters of English Literature from Kings College London and an MBA from London Business School.

TRUSTEE

David joined his family’s publishing and manufacturing business in 1961, becoming Managing Director in 1972, and seeing it through many changes before semi-retiring in 2014. His experience covered all aspects of management of finance, personnel, production and sales. In addition, he has been a trustee of trade charities for thirty years and was Chair of the Bookbinders’ Charitable Society from 1995 until 2016. He has also been involved in education since the 1970s and is currently a school governor responsible for finance.

TRUSTEE

Jeremy is Head of Sales with specific focus on Academic, Education, and Professional sectors at Glassboxx Limited. He also serves as a member of ALPSP Training Committee and is a Trustee of The Book Trade Charity (BTBS). His knowledge of the professional, academic, and trade publishing sectors, both in the UK and overseas, has given Jeremy a deep understanding of the publishing industry.

VOLUNTEER CHILDREN’S BOOK COORDINATOR

Jane has a long and varied career as an educator having worked in the primary, secondary and international sectors. She currently works as a fulltime Head of English and says that championing reading for pleasure is her main aim, as it lies at the heart of academic success. In Jane's free time there's nothing she likes better than organising the children's books at The Book Trade Charity and finding new readers for our book stock.