Meet the Speakers


Ian Small AudioBooks.com General manager


Ian has more than 10 years of leadership expe- rience in the audiobook industry, guiding the suc- cessful launch, growth and


recent acquisition of Audiobooks.com by RBMedia. Audiobooks.com is a sub- scription-style audiobook service app with a catalogue of 100,000 titles from 360 publishing partners, and a cus- tomer base that is growing on a global scale thanks to recent launches in the UK and Australia.


@audiobooks_com


Annie Stone Bookbub


International account manager


Annie is the international account manager at Book- Bub, where she partners with publishers in the UK, Canada and Australia to


promote books across all genres and categories. Previously, Annie worked as an editor at Alloy Entertainment, Harle- quin TEEN and HarperCollins Children’s Books, and was a Publishers Weekly Star Watch honouree in 2015. She lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusets.


@aepstone


Lis Tribe Hodder Education Group managing director


Lis is group managing director of Hodder Educa- tion, one of the largest providers of curriculum and assessment materials


in the UK. Hodder Education was the British Book Awards’ Academic Pub- lisher of the Year in 2015 and 2016. Lis started her career in academic publish- ing at Routledge and has worked at Hodder Education for over 20 years. She recently joined the executive committee of Hachette UK and is currently presi-


dent of the Publishers Association. @etribe


Miranda West Do Books Publisher


Miranda is the founder and publisher of The Do Book Company. Launched in 2013 with five books and no investor, there are


now 16 books in the collection with dis- tribution in the UK, North America, Aus- tralia and Singapore. Its books are available in print and digital, with audiobooks coming later this year. In 2014, Miranda was selected as one of 10 Creative Entrepreneurs in the UK by the Hospital Club/ British Council.


@dobookco www.thebookseller.com


David Varela Criterion Games Writer


David is a writer and nar- rative designer who brings old-fashioned storytelling skills to new media. His work includes writing the


mobile adventure Sherlock: The Net- work, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman; the murder mys- tery game The Trace; and the chart-top- ping mobile app Zombies, Run! (as a script consultant). He has developed projects for Wonderbly and is working on a game with Criterion, with whom he


helped create Star Wars: Battlefront II. @writingstudio


Dominic White W F Howes


Head of publishing and commerce


Dominic, who has 17 years’ audio and digital publish- ing experience, leads the UK and Australian pub- lishing activity for W F


Howes. During his tenure he has grown the annual output from 100 titles to more than 1,000, making W F Howes the largest independent digital audiobook publisher. Highlights have included key acquisitions such as Dan Brown, creat- ing new e-lending rights models, and launching successful new imprints for retail and Australia.


@dominicwhite1


Susie Warhurst Acast UK


Director of content


Susie is director of con- tent at Acast UK, the country’s leading podcast platform. Acast hosts, distributes and monetises


podcasts for the likes of the Guardian, GLEAM Futures, BBC Worldwide, the Economist, Penguin, Little, Brown, Adam Buxton, “My Dad Wrote a Porno”, and many others. A former speech radio producer, Susie helps partners to launch new shows, grow an engaged audience and develop new revenue streams.


@susiewarhurst


Gordon Wise Curtis Brown


Senior literary agent


Gordon is a senior agent at Curtis Brown. He began working in the book trade as a bookseller, and prior to agenting, was an editor


for nearly 15 years. Gordon also served as a publishing director at companies including Pan Macmillan and Hachette. His list spans literary and commercial débuts as well as established authors and brands. Named Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2015, Gordon is also the current president of the Association of Authors’ Agents.


@gordonwise 23 Inkshares.


Thad Woodman Inkshares


Chief product officer


Thad’s background is in product development and economics. He handles all things product, design, code, and accounting at


Justin Small The Bio Agency Chief strategy officer


Justin is chief strategy officer at The Bio Agency, a leading innovation and transformation agency and the number one cre-


ative agency in Econsultancy’s Top 100. He is an experienced strategist, working in digital for the past 20 years, and has a background in service design, user experience, branding, business analysis and psychology. Justin excels in helping transform FTSE100 companies through the definition and execution of best-in-class innovation and transfor- mation strategies.


Gus Swan HarperCollins


Digital technology director


Gus is responsible for consumer-facing technol- ogy at HarperCollins UK, overseeing its websites, mobile apps and e-com-


merce in addition to its new product development. He has worked in digital technology for over 20 years, and started his media career writing about video games.


Nicola Solomon Societ of Authors Chief executive


Nicola is the chief execu- tive at the Society of Authors, a role which encompasses protecting authors’ interests in nego-


tiations/disputes with publishers and agents, advising individual authors and campaigning for authors’ rights, as well as for the wider cultural environment.


Richard Stagg Pearson


Vice-president, portfolio management, Higher Education courseware UK


Richard leads Pearson’s Higher Education product group in the UK, develop- ing a portfolio of print and digital resources designed


to support more effective teaching and personalised learning. Pearson has expertise in educational courseware and assessment, and a range of teach- ing and learning services powered by technology. It currently reaches 75 million students of all ages around the world.


@thebioagency @soc_of_authors


Michael Tamblyn Rakuten Kobo President and c.e.o.


Michael is the chief execu- tive officer at Rakuten Kobo. Driving growth, prof- itability and international expansion in a competi-


tive market, he combines a passion for reading with a deep focus on the hard- ware and software experiences that can make a customer’s reading life better. A passionate and engaging commentator, Michael speaks internationally on digi- tal media, publishing and mobile tech, and has been featured in the New Yorker, Wired and the New York Times.


@kobo


Roger Warner Squiz


Chief solutions officer


Roger is chief solutions officer at global technol- ogy company Squiz, help- ing leading publishing brands such as Hachette,


Oxford University Press, Elsevier and LexisNexis to exploit new product and service opportunities in digital. In his spare time, he writes YA novels in his secret bunker in East Sussex.


Kurt Thielen Zebralution


Founder and managing director


Kurt is the founder and managing director of Zebralution, a world leader in the digital distribution of music and audiobooks.


Kurt started his career working in a record shop in 1979 and was later the head of Rough Trade Records, and then Zomba Records. After that company was sold he founded Zebralution, which became one of the leading distributors of digital media content and mobile entertainment products. Zebralution is now rolling out its model globally.


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