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

Meryl Halls is Managing Director of the Booksellers Association, the trade body representing booksellers in the UK and Ireland. A long-standing figure in the book trade, she is a passionate advocate for bookshops, reading and the wider literary community. 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 and Executive Committee member of the European & International Booksellers Federation.

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

Andrew Franklin is the founder of Profile Books, which he established in 1996 after more than a decade at Penguin. He built Profile into one of Britain’s leading independent publishers, publishing authors including Alan Bennett, Mary Beard and Lynne Truss. In 2026 he received the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award and became non-executive Chair of Profile.

Amanda Ridout is the founder and CEO of Boldwood Books, the award-winning independent fiction publisher she launched in 2019. She has more than 35 years’ experience in publishing, including senior roles at Head of Zeus, Phaidon, HarperCollins and Headline, and has also served as Chair of the Independent Publishers Guild.

Phil Goodson is Group Finance Director at the Booksellers Association, with responsibility for the organisation’s financial management, IT and HR. He brings extensive experience in finance and business operations and plays an important role in supporting the BA’s work on behalf of booksellers across the UK and Ireland. The Booksellers Association represents more than 800 bookselling businesses and provides its members with business support, industry advocacy, networking and professional development.

Lucy Hale is Managing Director of Pan Macmillan, one of the UK’s leading publishing divisions. She began her career at Macmillan and has held senior sales, marketing and publishing roles at both Macmillan and Hachette. She returned to Pan Macmillan in 2020 and became Managing Director of Pan

Dr Maria Vassilopoulos is a publishing professional, book-trade historian and archivist with more than 20 years’ experience across bookselling, publishing sales and marketing. She holds a PhD in book-trade history from UCL and has worked with organisations including The Bookseller, the British Library and the University of Wales Press. She is also archivist for the Society of Young Publishers and The Book Trade Charity.

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.

Oli Munson is a literary agent and Director at A.M. Heath, representing both fiction and non-fiction. He has a particular focus on commercial fiction, crime, suspense and thrillers, as well as speculative fiction, horror and narrative non-fiction. He joined A.M. Heath in 2012 after nine years at Blake Friedmann.

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.

Jo Henry was most recently managing director of the book trade journal BookBrunch, having helped found the company in 2008, and remains on the advisory board. She began her career in publishing at literary agents AM Heath before joining Victor Gollancz, where she became sales director in 1989. In 1995 she joined Book Marketing Ltd. as managing director; the company was acquired by the Publishing News group in 2007 and then by RR Bowker, before becoming part of NielsenBookscan where Henry became VP of the market research division. She left to join BookBrunch  in 2018. Henry co-founded the Book Marketing Society with Alistair Giles in 2004, and has been chair of BTBS, the Book Trade Charity, as well as the Book Society.

Born in New Delhi, India, Sharika moved to the UK at the age of 11. After graduating, she taught in schools in Malawi before beginning her career in publishing at the children’s book packager Tucker Slingsby. She went on to work at Penguin, Egmont and Sage Publications before moving into financial services.

Sharika has held senior roles at Citi Private Bank, M&G, Threadneedle and Legal & General Investment Management. Since 2019, she has been Head of Business Development at CCLA Investment Management, specialising in working with charity, faith and public sector organisations.

She holds a BA in English Literature and investment qualifications from CFA UK, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She is also a trustee and Chair of the Finance and Investment Panel at Hampton Fund.

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.

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.