Executive Committee
Meet the Executive Committee at HarperCollins UK
Charlie Redmayne
Chief Executive Officer, HarperCollins UK
Charlie Redmayne is CEO of HarperCollins UK, with responsibility for the UK, Ireland, India and Australia, reporting to Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide.
Charlie first joined HarperCollins as Group Digital Director, and was promoted to Chief Digital Officer, based in HarperCollins’ head office in New York. He left HarperCollins in 2011 to set up Pottermore, JK Rowling’s digital publishing business, before returning as CEO in 2013.
At the start of his career Charlie served for four years as a lieutenant in the Irish Guards. He founded and ran the media buying company RCL Communications and entertainment business Blink TV, before launching leading UK teen internet company Mykindaplace Ltd in 2000, which he sold to BSkyB.
Charlie went on to become Head of Commercial Partnerships for the Sky Online Business Unit at BSkyB and joined HarperCollins UK as Group Digital Director in 2008.
Simon Dowson-Collins
General Counsel & Company Secretary
Simon runs the legal and contracts team at HarperCollins UK, responsible for all legal advice. He is also Company Secretary and a pension fund trustee.
Legal areas covered by Simon and his team include corporate and commercial matters, defamation, copyright, contractual matters, acquisitions, sales and handling any litigation.
A strong advocate of HarperCollins UK’s strategy on diversity and inclusion, Simon co-founded Elevate, HC’s Black, Asian and ethnic minority network and was named on the inaugural 2016 Financial Times UPstanding Executive Power List, the first ranking of its kind to unite business leaders from across all ethnic minority communities internationally.
Simon is also a qualified mediator and has a particular interest in coaching and mentoring both within and outside HarperCollins. Before joining HarperCollins UK in 2001, Simon was a legal advisor for the BBC. He is a trustee of Arts Educational Schools.
Kate Elton
Group Managing Director, Adult Commercial Publishing
Kate Elton is Group Managing Director for the Adult Commercial Divisions, which incorporate HarperFiction, HarperNonFiction, Avon, One More Chapter, HarperNorth, HQ, Mills & Boon and Pavilion. She joined HarperCollins in 2011, initially as Publisher for HarperFiction, before taking on additional responsibility for HarperNonFiction and Avon in 2014 and then moving into the expanded Group Managing Director role in 2023.
Prior to her move to HarperCollins, Kate worked for fifteen years at Random House.
David Roth-Ey
Managing Director and Publisher, 4th Estate and William Collins
David Roth-Ey is Managing Director and Publisher of 4th Estate and William Collins. Winner of the British Book Award’s Imprint of the Year in 2013 and shortlisted again in 2018 and 2020, 4th Estate publishes distinctive, critically-acclaimed fiction and nonfiction from a diverse array of authors including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Valeria Luiselli, Lena Dunham, Craig Brown, Anna Jones and Nigel Slater. The William Collins imprint, launched by David in 2013, brings together leading nonfiction writers across a wide range of disciplines, including history, biography, science, art, natural history, politics and memoir. It publishes prize-winning and bestselling books of consequence by writers such as Maya Jasanoff, David Attenborough, Kathryn Mannix, Daniel Kahneman, Christina Lamb, and Max Hastings. Integral to the William Collins list are a number of sub-imprints, including the landmark natural history series, THE NEW NATURALIST, along with the extensive Collins Classics line and the TLS Books imprint, publishing authors spanning from Lee Child to Patricia William and David Baddiel.
Prior to taking over as Executive Publisher in 2012, David served as Group Digital Director at HarperCollins UK in addition to publishing roles at HarperCollins US, Scribner, Bookspan and International Creative Management (ICM) in New York.
Lisa Milton
Managing Director and Publisher, HQ, Mills & Boon and Pavilion
Lisa is Managing Director and Publisher for HQ, Mills & Boon and Pavilion.
She joined HarperCollins in 2015 after a decade as Managing Director of Orion Publishing where she was responsible for Orion, Orion Children’s, Gollancz and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, which was awarded Imprint of the Year at the 2015 Bookseller Industry Awards. Whilst there she published major bestsellers and award winning authors including Maeve Binchy, Ian Rankin, Gillian Flynn and Malala Yousafzai.
Previously Lisa was Editorial Director at BCA, the UK’s biggest book club, and prior to this she had a successful career at Waterstones, where one of her most notable achievements was opening the flagship store in Piccadilly and winning the Bookshop of the Year Industry Award in 2000.
Cally Poplak
Managing Director and Publisher, Farshore and HarperCollins Children’s Books
Cally Poplak is Managing Director and Publisher of Farshore and HarperCollins Children’s Books. Cally began her career in children’s books at Hodder and Stoughton in 1993. She joined Reed Children’s Books in 1995 as Fiction Editor and was at Egmont from 1999. From 2015 until the acquisition of Egmont Books UK Ltd by HarperCollins, she was Managing Director of Egmont UK (Books and Magazines). Egmont Books was rebranded as Farshore in March 2021, with Cally as Executive Publisher – she became Executive Publisher of sister publishing division HarperCollins Children’s Books in April 2022.
HarperCollins Children’s Books is home to many children’s classics, including The Chronicles of Narnia, the Paddington stories, The Cat in the Hat and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and to some of the biggest names in children’s literature past and present, including Judith Kerr, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Dr. Seuss, Michael Morpurgo, Oliver Jeffers, David Walliams, Lauren Child and David Baddiel and publishing debuts from major talents such as Hannah Gold (The Last Bear won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2022) and Joe Wicks (The Burpee Bears), and Idris Elba’s forthcoming first book for children. The division’s achievements have been recognised repeatedly by the trade and it has been named Children’s Publisher of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards for an unprecedented three consecutive times.
Farshore’s mission is to make every child a proud reader through a broad and diverse portfolio that offers multiple ways into reading. It publishes books for the hottest brands in the world, including Minecraft, Roblox, My Little Pony, Dungeons & Dragons, and Mr. Men Little Miss. It also has cherished classics like Winnie-the-Pooh, Thomas & Friends, Tintin, The Little Prince, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Wind in the Willows and The Hundred and One Dalmatians, and publishes many beloved modern authors including Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, Holly Jackson, Laura Ellen Anderson and Sophy Henn.
David Alford
Chief Financial Officer
David joined HarperCollins in November 2007 from Warner Music, initially as a Commercial Director before moving on to roles as Group Commercial Director and Financial Controller before he was appointed Finance Director in 2016 and Chief Financial Officer in 2019.
As Chief Financial Officer, David is responsible for all aspects of the company’s finances, including internal and external reporting, the budgeting and forecasting of the UK entities, Author Royalties, Accounts Payable, Treasury and Payroll. The finance teams performing these tasks are spread over two locations, London and Glasgow. David also has responsibility for Technology, Production and Strategy for the UK business, and has executive oversight of the HarperCollins ANZ and India finance functions.
Alex Beecroft
Managing Director, Collins
Alex was appointed Managing Director of Collins in June 2020, and is accountable for performance of a division that encompasses education, dictionaries and language learning, atlases and general reference.
Alex joined HarperCollins through the graduate scheme in 2009, going on to work on group strategy before taking on the corporate development role in 2014 and joining the HarperCollins UK executive committee in 2016. He has worked with HarperCollins CEO, Charlie Redmayne to develop group strategy with responsibility for mergers and acquisitions and expanding the role of pricing and analytics. He also led the acquisition of Egmont Books UK in Spring 2020.
Fiona Allen
Communications Director
Joining HarperCollins in January 2015, Fiona heads up corporate communications, with responsibility for internal and external communications across the company’s four sites and in Ireland and India. She also oversees the company’s events programme, corporate social responsibility strategy and corporate reputation.
She has over twenty-five years’ experience in communications, having previously worked at Dorling Kindersley and Penguin. Most recently Head of PR & Brand Communications for high street retailer Waterstones, Fiona was responsible for brand partnerships and strategy as well heading the corporate and regional PR and events teams.
John Athanasiou
Director Of People
John joined HarperCollins in September 2008. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the People Strategy including; talent management, recruitment, diversity, inclusion and belonging, culture, staff development and employee relations, plus compensations and benefits across the company.
Prior to this role, John was Director of Executive Search International at Time Warner, and has also worked in a number of HR roles in blue-chip multi-national, private and public sector companies.
John has rolled out an industry-leading strategy on diversity and inclusion at HarperCollins, for which the company was recognised at the 2016 Race Equality Awards, included on the Social Mobility Index Top 75 2019 and 2020 and highly commended for the company’s work with Creative Access and the launch of a traineeship for colleagues from ethnic minorities.
Frankie Gray
Managing Director & Publisher, HarperFiction
Frankie Gray is Managing Director & Publisher for HarperFiction. Frankie was previously at Transworld, which she joined in 2014 and where she has since acquired and published many bestsellers from debut writers and established authors. She was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016 and was nominated for Editor of the Year in 2017. Most recently as Publisher, Bantam, Frankie led Transworld’s commercial fiction strategy and team, and served on the Transworld board. She previously worked at Headline and WME.
Sarah Emsley
Managing Director and Publisher, HarperNonFiction and HarperNorth
Sarah Emsley is Managing Dirctor and Publisher for HarperNonFiction and HarperNorth. HarperNonFiction comprises a large, experienced team who publish across the commercial non-fiction genres including A-list autobiography, sports, pop culture, memoir, current affairs, cookery, lifestyle and personal development. The division is split into a number of high-profile imprints including Mudlark, Element and Thorsons. HarperNorth is a thriving new division based in Manchester, expertly publishing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction inspired by the mission statement Books From The North For The World.
Before joining HarperCollins in 2023, Sarah spent seven years at Transworld followed by twelve years at Headline, where she headed up the Non-Fiction team and published a raft of number-one bestselling brand authors including Matthew Perry, Matthew McConaughey and Bryony Gordon.
Anna Derkacz
Group Sales and Rights Director
Anna Derkacz is Group Sales and Rights Director for HarperCollins UK, with responsibility for UK and International trade and non-trade sales, and rights sales into foreign language territories.
Anna delivers HarperCollins’s sales strategy and manages the teams that bring its books to market. She has taken the trade divisions from strength to strength, re-establishing core sales strategies for legacy brands such as Agatha Christie and J.R.R. Tolkien as well as new authors such as A.J. Finn, Rebecca F. Kuang, Yomi Adegoke and Holly Jackson.
Prior to her move to HarperCollins in 2016, Anna worked as a buyer for Asda and Borders, before joining Penguin Random House where she held positions across UK and International sales. She was promoted to the role of Group Sales Director in June 2018 and took responsibility for rights in 2021.
Alvar Jover
Director of Growth and Analytics
As Director of Growth and Analytics, Alvar is responsible for delivering and implementing optimal revenue growth strategies supported by advanced analytics and software development. Alvar joined HarperCollins in 2014. He previously worked in growth strategy related roles for companies such as Accenture and AVG Technologies. He earned an Executive Master on Digital Business from Esade and is a member of the advisory board for several start-ups.
Jo Surman
Group Digital & Technology Director
As Group Digital & Technology Director, Jo oversees the company’s technology division which develops and supports a wide variety of tools, applications, projects, services and digital technology solutions. In addition, Jo has responsibility for the Digital division where her remit covers audio, consumer insight and trends, social media channel management, D2C ecommerce, digital business development, media, marketing and partnerships, digital product development and backlist ebook production. Jo also facilitates both HarperCollins UK Security and Environment councils. Jo has worked in the digital arena for over 20 years and worked at Sky Digital Media before joining HarperCollins in 2008.
Charlotte Veaney
Production and Global Sourcing Director
Charlotte Veaney joined HarperCollins in 2018 as Production Director at HarperCollins Children’s Books, before becoming Group Production Director then taking on her current role in 2022. Charlotte leads the group production team and globally manages long-term strategic relationships with HarperCollins’s largest key suppliers, plans the business’s global contract renewal programme and leads local print negotiations for Australia, India, the EU and the UK. Charlotte also sits on the HCUK Environmental Steering Group, which drives the company’s sustainability strategy. Prior to HarperCollins, Charlotte held roles at printers CPI, and publishers including Bonnier, Bloomsbury and Hachette.
Gordon Scott
Managing Director, Supply Chain
Gordon Scott joined HarperCollins in July 2012 as Managing Director – Supply Chain, responsible for all supply chain services. Gordon was previously Managing Director with Wincanton in the UK, operating over 200 sites for Retailers and Manufacturers. Prior to that he held various roles as Managing Director, Operations Director for P&O, Allied Domecq & TDG.