The IPG is a charity and is governed by a board of trustees and Memorandum and Articles of Association.
THE IPG BOARD
The IPG has a non-executive Board of Directors, who assist the IPG with strategic advice and practical support. Board members meet six times a year, and receive no payment for the work they do on behalf of the IPG. Members serve a maximum of nine years, excluding any time served as Chair.
Current IPG board members are:
Shannon Cullen, IPG Chair
After moving to London from New Zealand in 1999, Shannon has over twenty years of publishing experience across children’s illustrated and fiction books, working at Collins, Puffin, Ladybird and Quarto before joining Walker Books in October 2024. Shannon is a passionate advocate for more diversity in publishing: in 2011 she co-founded the Commonword Children’s Diversity Writing Prize and has worked across many initiatives to widen representation in children’s publishing, including WriteNow and Undiscovered Voices. When not getting excited about changing children’s lives through books, Shannon is a keen foodie and speedy reader, and also enjoys spinning, being by the sea and spending time with her family.
Eela Devani, IPG Vice-Chair
Eela is Product Director at Thomas Telford.
Oliver Gadsby, IPG President
Oliver Gadsby is an experienced leader and adviser of international publishing and information businesses and has served on the IPG board as a director and as Chair. Oliver is Founder and Chair of Zero Carbon Academy and Chair of World Textile Information Network. He founded and is a director of Rowman & Littlefield International and was Chief Executive at Continuum Publishing. Previous positions include Director of Strategy and Acquisitions at Informa, and several roles at Wolters Kluwer, in Sweden and the UK. Oliver sits on the advisory boards of Amnet ContentSource; of Perlego, the e-book subscription platform; of academic publishers Peter Lang and Berghahn Books; and of trade publisher Muswell Press. He represents the IPG as a director of Publishers’ Licensing Services. He is a member of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, the 600 year-old Livery Company in the City of London.
Jamie Hodder-Williams
Jamie started his career at a chain of Scottish booksellers, then worked in editorial and marketing roles before becoming CEO of Hodder & Stoughton, Headline, John Murray Press and Quercus. He has acquired and managed global brand authors including Stephen King, David Mitchell, David Nicholls, Jodi Picoult, Mike Gayle and Sophie Hannah and some of the biggest non-fiction authors including Alex Ferguson and Michael Parkinson. He has also acquired and managed numerous businesses, including Quercus Editions Limited, Nicholas Brealey Publishing and Jessica Kingsley Publishers. He was a Board member of Hachette UK and left corporate publishing to launch an independent - Bedford Square Publishers.
Helen Kogan
Helen Kogan is Managing Director of Kogan Page, a leading independent publisher for specialist professional communities (including Human Resources, Marketing, the Financial Sector and Logistics) and for a general Business and Management readership. Prior to her current position, which she has held since 2006, she was a journalist specialising in areas relating to human resources and management. In recent years Kogan Page has won the Independent Professional and Academic Publisher of the Year (2019), Independent International Achievement of the Year (2019), Independent Digital Publisher of the Year (2020) and has been shortlisted for five consecutive years for the British Book Awards Academic and Professional Publisher of the Year. The company won the Stationer’s Company own Product Design Innovation Excellence Awards 2021 for its ground-breaking work on providing accessible eBooks to visually impaired students. It has offices in London and New York.
Jack Murphy
Jack Murphy is Operations Director at Profile Books. He has previously worked in production departments at Faber, Random House, Harper Collins and The Harvill Press. Founded in 1996, Profile is one of the leading independent trade publishers in the UK, publishing across non-fiction, fiction, crime, business, self-help and much more.
Nicola Ramsey
Nicola is Chief Executive Officer at Edinburgh University Press. Prior to this role she was Head of Editorial (Books) at EUP and Publisher for their acclaimed Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies List.
Ame Verso
Ame Verso is Publishing Director at David and Charles Ltd. She was part of the leadership team that led the MBO of the D&C assets from F+W Media in 2019, after which the company went on to win Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year at the IPG Independent Publishing Awards in 2021 and 2023. The daughter of a successful D&C craft author, Ame first joined the business in 2003 as a junior editor before leaving in 2006 to pursue a freelance career and start a family. She rejoined F+W in 2012 as Craft Business Manager and later became Content Director. Ame is a former Bookseller Rising Star, has served as a mentor for the Society of Young Publishers, and is an alumna of the University of Exeter Business School.
Rachel Williams
Rachel Williams studied literature before becoming an editor and publisher of children's books. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, she moved to London in her mid-20s and has never left. Before launching Magic Cat Publishing with Jenny Broom, she and Jenny created the Big Picture Press imprint for Templar and Wide-Eyed Editions at Quarto, where they commissioned the Little People Big Dreams series. Magic Cat won the Publisher of the Year at the 2023 Independent Publishing Awards and Small Press of the Year at the Nibbies.
Kate Wilson
Kate Wilson is the founder and managing director of Nosy Crow, a children’s publisher that launched in 2010 and has won multiple awards including Independent Publisher of the Year at the IPG’s Independent Publishing Awards.