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  1. About us
  2. Our team

Our team

Our experienced and dedicated team work alongside the trustees and are here to advise and
support all those who need our help. From the smallest problems, to life changing situations and events, they will always do all they can to operate the charity’s assistance with beneficiaries’ needs and requirements.

Vic Perry, Chief Executive 

Vic is new to the team, joining us from the charity Home-Start UK where she supported their unprecedented corporate partnership with John Lewis and Waitrose. Previously, she was Global Social Impact Manager for Jaguar Land Rover delivering their charitable partnerships and Chief Executive of EIL UK, a youth education charity which is part of a Federation afforded UN Peace Messenger status. She brings particular experience of making charities and partnerships relevant for the modern age and has leadership and income generation experience across a diverse range of organisations, including an academic publishing house and the British Red Cross. She spends her spare time with her family and two dogs and enjoys bike rides, cooking for friends, travelling and a good book. 

Glenda Barnard, Operations Manager

Graduated with a degree in Humanities in 1990 and subsequently trained as a solicitor, but decided not to pursue this as a career, instead working in Further Education as a student adviser and grants manager at West Herts College, and then moving to Hertfordshire Library Service. Before joining BTBS in 2011 Glenda 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.

Nicki Cattle FCCA, Finance & 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!

Keith Foster, Special Projects Manager

Keith joined BTBS at the end of 2010 to help with the management of a major refurbishment of The Retreat at Kings Langley which was undertaken in 2011, having worked with a building based Social Enterprise Company that had undertaken works on site previously. On the conclusion of that project he stayed on looking after the management of building and estate based projects for the Charity. More recently his involvement has been primarily with the redevelopment of the Bookbinders Cottages at our Whetstone, North London site.

Board & Trustees:

The Charity is controlled by a Board of Trustees, appointed for an initial term of three years, then becoming eligible for a further term.

Chair: Jonathan Nowell

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 based in London. 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 chairman of The Book Trade Charity, BTBS.

Prior to joining Trillium in 2016, Jonathan served as 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. His success has been based on simple, clear organic growth strategies and the identification and delivery of a number of high-profile acquisitions. He is a regular speaker at book industry and digital content conferences in Europe, US and China and has lectured in Published Media at City University and University College London.

Vice-Chair: Ann Woodhall 

"After leaving school I followed various paths and gained a range of qualifications, including a Teaching Certificate and ICSA Part 1 in Law, Accountancy, Economics and Business.   I worked in a number of different companies, mainly in administrative roles e.g. BBC, law firms, music companies.   My longest period of employment was in book publishing where I worked for Little, Brown Book Group for 30 years, retiring in 2015 as HR/Facilities Director. 

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 at 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."

Emily-jane Taylor 

Emily-jane Taylor 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.

President: Ursula Mackenzie

Ursula Mackenzie was Chief Executive of Little, Brown Book Group from 2006 – 2015. She was Chair of the Trade Publishers’ Council from 2007 – 2012 and served on the PA Council from 2011 – 2012, acting as its President from 2012 – 2013. Following a period as Chair of Little, Brown, she retired at the end of 2016 and now sits as  a non-executive director on the Boards of Profile and Andrew Nurnberg Associates. She has been President of The Book Charity since January 2018.

Jeremy Brinton

Jeremy’s three decades in publishing and book retail is informed by his senior and leadership roles in UK and overseas. Appointed Head of Publisher Relations (PLS) in October 2015, he was principally responsible for managing more than 3,500 publisher accounts across the education, business and public sectors. Jeremy gained an intimate understanding of publishers’ changing business needs to ensure the development of appropriate collective licensing solutions and rights management services for its primary stakeholders.

Following an earlier commissioning career with Informa and Thomas Telford Publishing (ICE Publishing), Jeremy built on his experience as Publishing Manager with premier Middle East trade publisher, Motivate Publishing. In 2007, he took up a new role as CEO of leading bookseller, Magrudy’s in Dubai. As a co-founder of Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Jeremy led its operations team from 2009 to 2011. After seven years, Jeremy returned to the UK to provide consultancy services to UK publishers and service providers, a role he has reprised by joining Maverick Publishing Specialists as Senior Associate, Business Development in May 2020.

Kate McFarlan

'I have spent my working life in Books, having devoted many of my childhood and teenage years to reading them (including at university). My career divides in half: the first half in Publishing at Penguin from 1980 to 1997, starting as a copy-editor and moving into various operational roles, and the second half in Printing at Clays from 1997 to 2017, where I was MD from 2008 to 2015. I have now moved back into the Publishing side, at Profile Books, as well as being a non-executive director at Clays.' 

Fraser Tanner 

Fraser, originally starting out in accountancy,  came into the book trade from the world of commercial foreign exchange where he was involved with the launch of one of the first internet trading desks in the 1990’s. He is the managing director of Batch – the technical company owned by the Booksellers Association where he is also a Director. He also sit on the Board of National Book Tokens and various book industry bodies. He is a passionate supporter of the Book Trade Charity where he has been a trustee for several years.

Sam Smith

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. 

Isobel Dixon

Isobel is MD and Head of Books at the Blake Friedmann Literary Agency where she represents bestselling and prize-winning writers from the UK and around the world. She was born and educated in South Africa, and went to Edinburgh University for her postgraduate study, completing Master’s Degrees in English Literature and in Applied Linguistics, the latter with a particular focus on adult literacy. As a poet she is published in the UK by Nine Arches, who most recently published her fourth collection Bearings. Isobel is a Trustee of the National Centre for Writing, a mentor for the Rebecca Swift Foundation’s Women Poets’ Prize, and President of the Association of Authors' Agents.

"I was privileged to begin my publishing career with the late, great Carole Blake, who was not just a brilliant agent, but passionate about supporting the Book Trade Charity. She was a Trustee and President for many years, and I’m honoured to follow on from her as a Trustee and to be part of the Book Trade Charity’s vital work. I’m particularly excited about our new Bookbinders’ Cottages, and the opportunity to reach and help more people right across the publishing industry, wherever they are, than ever before."

Gemma Woodward 

Paul Chapman is co-opted to the Finance Committee

Sally Atkinson, Ben Gutcher, Marie Bucksey and Barbara Taylor are co-opted to the Grants & Housing Committee

David Neale

Elise Burns 

Patrons:

Nigel Batt
Kip Bertram
Edwin Buckhalter
John Elsley
Christopher Foyle
Trevor Hing
Bill Samuel
Timothy Wright

Ambassadors:
We are in the process of appointing an advisory council of younger ‘Ambassadors’, this will be established to act as a two-way liaison body between BTBS and the industry, to improve user (and potential-user) representation, to strengthen the charity’s diversity and inclusivity objectives, and to act as a source of informed and involved future trustees.

Published: 20th January, 2020

Updated: 4th May, 2021

Author:

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Copyright 2020 The Book Trade Charity Limited. All rights reserved.
Limited Company Registered in England No. 6725178. Registered Charity No. 1128129
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