Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi is the founder and CEO of children’s publisher Kalimat Group, founder and chairperson of Kalimat Foundation, founder and past-president of the Emirates Publishers Association and founder and patron of the UAE Board on Books for Young People.
Hugo Setzer served on IPA’s Executive Committee from 2004 to 2010 and from 2013 to 2020. He is both Mexican and German and since 1990 he has been the CEO of Manual Moderno, which is a leading publishing house in the fields of medicine and psychology in Spanish language, based in Mexico City. He has been on two occasions Vice–President of the Mexican Publishers Association, CANIEM, was founding President of the Mexican CMO, CeMPro, and has served on the executive boards of the STM Association, IFRRO and the advisory board of the Accessible Books Consortium.
Dr Michiel Kolman is Senior VP of Information Industry Relations and Academic Ambassador at Elsevier. He is Past President of the International Publishers Association and Chair of the IPA’s Inclusive Publishing and Literacy Committee. Michiel Kolman has worked at Elsevier since 1995, launching the online journal New Astronomy, leading academic relations and more recently being the Executive sponsor of Elsevier Pride. More information: Elsevier
Richard Charkin has held executive positions at Pergamon Press, Oxford University Press, Reed International/Reed Elsevier and Current Science Group, is the former Chief Executive of Macmillan Publishers Limited and Executive Director of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck. He was Executive Director of Bloomsbury from 2007 to 2018 and is currently President of Bloomsbury China and of John Wisden. He serves on the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Editorial Board of Logos. He has founded and manages Mensch Publishing.
Youngsuk ‘YS’ Chi is an international businessman and a global thought leader in the publishing, education and information solutions industries. As Chairman of Elsevier, he works directly with key stakeholders in government, academia and industry. In his role as Director of Corporate Affairs for RELX, Elsevier’s parent company, he is responsible for government affairs, corporate communications and corporate responsibility across all four of the group’s market segments. He is also President of the Elsevier Foundation and serves on its Board of Directors. More information: Elsevier
Herman P. Spruijt has been involved in publishing since 1974 holding key positions in both national and international publishing. He started as an editor with one of the Kluwer titles, worked in their printing industries and finally became a science publisher with Martinus Nijhoff (later Kluwer Academic). He joined Elsevier Science Publishers in 1987 where in 1995 he was appointed as the Chairman and CEO of Elsevier Science and on the board of ReedElsevier. He served, amongst other positions in the publishing industry, as a Treasurer of STM (Scientific, Technical and Medical publishers, 1993–1999), on the board of ICSTI (International Council for Scientific and Technical Information) and in the Industry Advisory Committee of WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization, 1998–2003).
Ana María Cabanellas began her career as a lawyer and notary before founding the family–owned publishing company of law books Editorial Heliasta as a partner. In 1979, Ms Cabanellas became President of Editorial Claridad, which specializes in dictionaries, as well as fiction, philosophy and history. In 2006, Ms Cabanellas founded UnaLuna, which publishes children’s books and in 2018 Tobogán that publishes children activity books. Ms Cabanellas has been extremely active in industry associations as President of CADRA (Argentina’s RRO), President of the Cámara Argentina del Libro, President of GIE, and President of IPA from 2004–2008. She still works with these associations.
Pere Vicens founded Editorial Vicens Vives in 1961. He was a member of the UNESCO Publications Council and a key architect of the UNESCO World Book Capital Cities programme. More information: Wikipedia
Alain Gründ took over his grandfather’s business, Editions Gründ, from his father in 1963. In addition to his activity as a business manager, Alain Gründ was president of the National Publishing Union (1985–91), then of the Federation of European Publishers (1990–92) and finally of the International Publishers Association (1996–2000). More information: Adanap
Fernando Guedes chaired the Associaçao Portuguesa de Editores e Livreiros (APEL–1969–1972 and 1983– 1987) and was the last President of the predecessor of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP)–the GELC or the Groupement des Editeurs de Livres de la Communauté (1988–1990). He was a Cultural Advisor to the EEC from 1988 to 1991, and was a member of UNESCO’s Publications Committee. More information: Wikipedia Federation of European Publishers IPA