The go-getting 33-year-old has blazed a trail as a multi-award-winning social impact entrepreneur, champion of diversity, inclusion, and equality as well as making a mark as an award-winning journalist and broadcaster.
Joanna has spent the last 14 years, increasing the employment of diverse talent through inclusive hiring practices and creating inclusive working cultures. Launching her first charity Elevation Networks Charitable Trust at 18 alongside six colleagues in 2006, following this 2008 Joanna went on to start her own Social Enterprise Shine Media in 2008, saw she placed over 3000 people from diverse backgrounds into work within the creative industries.
Joanna’s latest enterprise is founding Blue Moon, a flagship inclusive Executive Search Business and Diversity and Inclusion Consultancy Practice. Before BM, Joanna founded Hyden, part of FTSE 250 Global Recruiter SThree, an executive search and consultancy business.
Alongside Executive Search success, Joanna has an impressive track record in attracting, recruiting, retaining, and promoting diverse talent and leading businesses through culture transformation, unique recruitment processes, and challenging bias from the top-down and bottom-up. This work, coupled with her personal story, led to her TEDx Talk on Social Mobility in Oman in 2018.
She has been instrumental in establishing the Creative Diversity All-Party Parliamentary Group with Baroness Deborah Bull, of which she is a joint secretary. Joanna also sits on the UKRI Arts & Humanities Research Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Expert Advisory Panel Boundless Creativity Joint Research Project, is an active member of the DCMS and Cultural Renewal Taskforce, Culture Committee chaired by Tracy Brabin MP and an Everyday Ally for UN Women.
The University of Reading in 2019 awarded Joanna a Distinguished Graduate Award, and she then received an Honorary Doctorate in Business from the University of West England in the same year.
Joanna’s responsibilities do not end there; she is a Non-Executive Director for Investors in People, an Advisory Board member RISE a group for women in Broadcast, Ambassador Mental Health in Recruitment, Expert Advisory Board Member for New Scotland Yard counter terrorism Advisory Board, a Trustee for The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, Trustee and Director of The Media Society. Joanna is also a Trustee and Director of Haberdasher Askes Trust Federation Board and School Governor of Hatcham College and Mulberry Academy Shoreditch. Joanna was also awarded her Freedom of the City in 2018 and became the first black female to become a Liverywoman for theWorshipful Company of Haberdashers.
Joanna was also awarded an MBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours list for her services to diversity and inclusion in the creative and media industries
Louise Banham is the editor in chief at Newtrade Media, where she is responsible for a portfolio of five B2B magazines, two websites and an Insight platform dedicated to the independent convenience and wholesale channel, including the market-leading paid-for title RN, and the largest circulated title in the market, Retail Express. In the past two years, three of these titles have been shortlisted for PPA Independent Publisher Awards, with RN winning Content Piece of the Year in 2020. And in 2018, Louise was shortlisted for PPA Editor of the Year (Business Media). Louise has 14 years’ experience writing about the independent channel and is passionate about Newtrade Media’s brands, which are designed to engage and energise small business owners, and create opportunities for retailers, wholesalers and their suppliers to increase sales and profits. She has also worked for a think tank, servicing the financial services industry, and a media agency.
Amanda’s experience spans publishing, digital media, membership, events, conferences, and exhibitions. She led a management buy-out of Faversham House in 2010 and subsequently bought out her private equity partners a few years later. With her fellow directors, she has been responsible for repositioning the company as an omni-channel digital intelligence business building on the company’s strong brands in utilities, sustainability, and visual communications.
Andrew Bloch is the founder of Andrew Bloch & Associates, a boutique consultancy specialising mainly in the communications and marketing industry. His portfolio includes non-executive director, board advisory, consultancy and project roles for a range of high growth businesses and agencies.
Andrew co-founded Frank, one of the UK’s most respected PR agencies. Frank has represented some of the nation’s best-known brands and is one of the industry’s most decorated agencies, responsible for some its most famous campaigns. Last year, he stepped down from his day-to-day role as managing partner to become a non-executive director.
Andrew has acted as official spokesperson and PR advisor to Lord Sugar for over 20 years and has handled the PR for all The Apprentice winners and their companies since the show started in 2005.
He is a board advisor to leading M&A firm, PCB Partners, advising their buy-side clients who are looking to make strategic acquisitions in the marketing services area, and on the sell-side of the business, advising marketing services agencies who are looking for an exit.
Andrew is a board advisor to a number of high growth businesses including PR software business, Propel, recruitment and development platform, Phoenix51, esports organisation, LDN UTD and soft drinks company, Dalstons.
Andrew currently consults a range of businesses on their marketing and PR requirements including amongst others, Mars Wrigley, Tide, St Paul’s Cathedral and Can O Water.
He has partnered with AAR, and is responsible for leading and expanding their PR consultancy practise as well as developing new approaches to supporting both brands and PR agencies.
Andrew sits on the Business Launch Group panel for The Prince’s Trust, is a founding mentor of the School of Communications Arts, a Generation Z mentor at the School of Marketing, a council member of Superbrands and a group advisor to Big Community Records.
Andrew is listed in the ‘PR Week Power Book' – 'The Definitive Guide To The Most Influential People in PR’ and is ranked as the most influential PR person on Twitter. In 2021, Andrew was named as one of the Top Ten most Influential PR people in the world by Buzz Sumo. He is named in the Evening Standard Progress 1000 list of London’s Most Influential People. Andrew Bloch & Associates has been recognised as ‘Most Adaptive Business of 2020’ by Intuit Quickbooks.
As Commercial Content Director at Immediate Media Co, Jonathan is responsible for the running of Immediate’s creative content studio, Imagine, which produces partnership content for a wide portfolio of special interest editorial brands including BBC Good Food, Radio Times and BBC Top Gear.
He also works closely with Immediate’s sales and editorial teams to develop content strategies for partnership campaigns.
Jonathan was previously Head of Commercial Content at Express Newspapers, responsible for all partnership content across the Daily Express and Star newspapers, and brings almost two decades of editorial experience to the commercial space, having worked as an editor across a number of well-known digital and print brands including OK!, ELLE and the official London 2012 magazine series.
Inspired by her daughter, Founder Serlina launched the UK’s first magazine to celebrate Black girls, Cocoa Girl. Giving Black children a voice whilst educating the community about the Black culture.
Serlina Boyd is the founder of Cocoa, the UK’s first black children’s magazines (Cocoa Girl and Cocoa Boy). In 4 weeks, the magazine grew a readership of over 10,000 children! As seen from extensive media coverage Cocoa Girl issue 1 has sold over 17,000 copies just from online orders, at one point it was selling over 1,000 copies a day.
The overwhelming positive feedback and demand for the magazines confirms the crucial need to build a strong community for young black girls and boys who are often misrepresented by mainstream media.
The magazines are an educational tool and Serlina wants black children everywhere to know that they don’t have to change their appearance to feel beautiful and she intends to use the Cocoa platform to celebrate their culture while making black role models more visible. The magazines are also filled with inspiring and empowering content for young Black children aged 7-11 years and is intended to support carers and parents too.
As a qualified childcare provider and having worked in the publishing industry for 18 years, launching the Cocoa titles has given her the opportunity to combine her passion for children and the media.
Cocoa has previously won the ‘Newcomer Award’ at The Independent Awards 2020 and ‘Launch of the Year’ at The BSME Awards 2020.
Ewan Buck has been the creative lead in a number of award winning content agencies. An alumnus of Ravensbourne University, he designs magazines and websites for global brands. He has been responsible for developing and championing many household names, and had the honour of once being awarded the PPA Business Designer of the Year.
Rob has been Managing Director of Total Telecom, a division of Terrapinn Holdings, since 2010 and has overseen the transition from traditional print publisher to omni-channel media owner, with a portfolio including online publishing and award-winning events such as Connected Britain. Rob has over 25 years experience in the industry including roles at EMAP and Timothy Benn Publishing across multiple B2B markets, including finance, broadcast and tech.
Award-winning art director, digital and print graphic designer with over 17 years experience specialising in editorial and publishing. Formerly at Stylist, Northstar, The Guardian, The Observer, Esquire Weekly (App – iPad and iPhone), WIRED (App – iPad / Kindle / Samsung) and The Times Magazine.
Rupert is co-CEO of Burlington Media Group, an SME-size B2B media, publishing, events and data business. Burlington Media runs multiple B2B brands in the legal space - Briefing, Legal Support Network, Legal Practice Management and Unicorn. Rupert mainly focuses on product and business strategy, though he can, finally, also do business maths.
Hugh has been MD of The Stage Media Co since 2012 following periods at Thomson Financial, Emap and Reed International. His first role in publishing was as a reporter at William Reed. His career has included a period practising as a criminal barrister.
Digital and cultural transformation have been significant aspects of his current role. In 2020 the company acquired Bookseller Media expanding its titles, websites and events.
Caroline is an experienced events and commercial leader in the B2B media & publishing space, having spent over 15 years building profitable event portfolios. After a short-lived stint as a journalist, she moved on to launch the events division at Newtrade Media, and thus ignited a life-long career and passion. Spanning a variety of sectors and territories, Caroline has held senior roles at Reed Business Information, Burlington Media Group and more recently, a directorial role at industry body PPA where she was responsible for the commercial operation, events strategy & delivery.
Now at EMAP, Caroline is responsible for the conferences business, driving content, strategy and revenues across four brand portfolios. In her spare time, Caroline attempts to keep her journalistic skills alive by dabbling as a theatre critic, and holds a non-exec director role at Eventwell, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting the mental health of event professionals in the UK and US.
Andrew Davies started his career as a journalist on local papers around his native Liverpool, he then moved to London to join RBI and he became a very experienced B2B writer and editor. In 2003 he joined dmg world media as deputy editor of kbbreview, the leading B2B title for the kitchen and bathroom retail sector. He eventually became managing editor in charge of the company's portfolio of B2B and consumer titles in that market. In 2008, that portfolio was acquired in a management buyout by then publishing director Patrick Taylor and Taylist Media was born, wth Andrew in charge of all its content. Keen to keep his journalistic skills intact, he also now hosts the award-winning kbbreview podcast.
Ivor is the former Managing Director of, and currently an adviser to, MGP the 2020 PPA Independent Publishing Company of the Year. MGP is a specialist publisher dedicated to promoting best practice in healthcare. Prior to founding MGP in 1994, Ivor spent 13 years in the pharmaceutical industry in sales, marketing, and general management with Schwarz Pharma, ICI Pharmaceuticals, and Kabi Pharmacia. Ivor is a past Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Marketing (PM) Society and of the Hertfordshire Valleys CCG Dacorum Patients Group.
Sally joined Anthem in 2008 and has since helped to establish and grow Anthem’s food and wellbeing division. She was the launch editor of Food Heaven, Gluten-Free Heaven, Reloved and Simply Vegan. In 2015, she launched Vegan Food & Living, which has become one of Anthem’s biggest brands. She’s now responsible for shaping the print and digital development of the brand, as well as overseeing the publishing of Planet Mindful and Italia!.
Vegan Food & Living was crowned Consumer Magazine of The Year at the 2017 PPA Independent Publisher Awards, while Anthem has won Publisher of the Year twice, in 2014 and 2017.
Sophie Griffiths joined Travel Trade Gazette in March 2010 as a news reporter, covering cruise, agents, interviews and industry analyses, before working her way up to the position of editor in January 2017. She is also the founder of TTG LGBT - a network for LGBT people and allies within the travel industry - which champions diversity within the sector.
In 2019 Sophie was awarded Editor of the Year – Trade & Professional by the British Society of Magazine Editors. She was also named Editor of the Year for the second year running at the 2019 Independent Publisher Awards, where TTG Media was also named Independent Publishing Company of the Year.
Charlotte is group content director of content marketing agency The River Group, overseeing the creative execution of campaigns across a spectrum of B2C clients including Coop, Superdrug and Holland & Barrett. She has more than 20 years’ experience in publishing, starting life in the B2B world of education, before moving into health and then retail at top B2B brand Retail Week as group content director. At Retail Week she was responsible for the launch of its in-house content marketing studio Retail Week Connect, as well as retail diversity programme Be Inspired. She has led numerous content teams across digital, events, print, social and data – both in subscriptions and content marketing.
Maggie has been a journalist for a very long time! She started her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. After several years on the magazine, she moved to 'the other side of the fence' to work as a copywriter for a marketing agency, writing case studies and working on ad and website copy for companies such as eBay, Dell, Microsoft and more. In 2006, just weeks before IT Pro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of IT Pro, she was appointed group editor of Cloud Pro and IT Pro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for Channel Pro, too, in 2016. In 2021, Maggie's role expanded to global editorial director and head of content marketing, with responsibility for content in the UK, US, Europe and APAC as well as the alignment between pure editorial and lead generation-related content. Her areas of particular interests include diversity and inclusion, management and C-level issues, cloud, the business value of technology, sustainability, and careers to name but a few.
David Lillywhite is editorial director and co-founder of Hothouse Media. David ran away from an engineering career to join the automotive publishing circus in 1992, and has been involved with car and motorcycle publications ever since. At EMAP he went from staff writer to editor of Classic Car magazine, before switching to Bike, tasked with the biggest relaunch in its long history, which resulted in its highest ever sales. Having survived two years of riding superbikes, David went freelance, working across titles as diverse as The Daily Telegraph and Max Power, before co-founding Octane magazine by re-mortgaging his house. Under his editorship it became the UK’s most successful classic car magazine, and was bought by Dennis Publishing in 2008.
David became editorial director at Dennis, overseeing Octane, two new launches – Vantage and Enzo – and new acquisition Land Rover Monthly. He left Dennis in 2017 to launch AutoClassics website with Motorsport Network, before co-founding Hothouse Media in 2018 to publish new quarterly Magneto, the annual Concours Year, one-off pandemic website Concours Virtual and numerous contract publishing productions.
Since then, Magneto has won multiple awards from the BSME, Guild of Motoring Writers, SPD, Newspress and PPA. Meanwhile, David continues to nurture new talent, currently mentoring Hothouse’s new staff writer.
With an experienced background in high-end publishing on a national and international level, Chris has a track record that is unrivalled within the sector in the North East of England and beyond.
He launched his first publishing business, Room 501, in 2007, which was acquired five years later and then launched Remember Media and Digital Allies in 2014. In 2021 he led the merger of the two companies to form Allies Group, a leading content, digital marketing and training company.
During his career Chris has secured countless bespoke publishing contracts and produced many luxury magazines for high-end clients including Rockliffe Life, Tresco Times, Fenwick Magazine and Jules B Magazine. He also sits on the development board for Lumiere Durham and is a director on the board of The Power of Women, a campaign to lift the aspirations of young women across the Tees Valley.
Sarah is an award-winning podcaster and digital editor who has experience in all aspects of podcasting, from hosting to editing and marketing. She launched her first podcast, A Calmer Life, in 2017 and has interviewed many high-profile wellness authors and experts such as the author Matt Haig, author and gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter and TV presenter Dr Rangan Chatterjee. She has since launched Sleepy Time, a meditation podcast for children, and We’ve Made It, a specialist podcast for crafters. Sarah is an enthusiastic champion of podcasting and believes that it’s a great way for publishers to engage with new audiences.
Sarah is currently a digital editor working on Immediate Media’s craft hub www.gathered.how while hosting A Calmer Life and We’ve Made It podcasts. She was previously the digital editor for In The Moment Magazine and Project Calm, managing the calmmoment.com website.
Daniel Pearce is CEO and owner of TTG Media, the award-winning media business connecting the travel industry in the UK and beyond through magazines, websites and events.
After working as a journalist in newspapers and magazines since 1996, Daniel joined TTG as Editor in 2010, before mounting a management buy-out and setting up TTG Media in 2013.
Since then TTG Media has gone from strength to strength, launching a string of new initiatives including membership programme TTG+, the TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies, TTG LGBT events, the ttgluxury Travel Awards, the ttgluxury Travel Summit, and this year the Travel Industry Awards by TTG.
In April 2019 the business rebranded under a new vision to promote a ‘Smarter, Better, Fairer’ travel industry – and new investment in print publishing, with TTG magazine still at the heart of the industry 67 years after its first edition.
In 2019 TTG Media was named Independent Publishing Company of the Year at the PPA Independent Publisher Awards, where it also won the Relaunch of the Year, and editor Sophie Griffiths was named Editor of the Year – while in 2020 TTG Media was crowned Business Media Brand of the Year at the Campaign Publishing Awards.
Maria Pieri is the Editorial Director of the award-winning National Geographic Traveller (UK) and National Geographic Traveller Food titles and has over 20 years’ experience creating travel and lifestyle content for APL Media Limited. Maria is currently driving the education strand for the BSME as their 2021 Head of Education and has previously held the post of BSME Chair in 2020.
Mark became Chief Executive Officer and owner of Western Business Media in 2019 following an MBO, having previously been Managing Director.
Western Business Media has eight B2B publications, two awards and two live events. The markets it covers include fire safety, security, facilities management. health and safety, industrial plant and equipment, controls and drives, handling and storage and cleaning.
Previously Mark was a journalist and event organiser in the B2B market with 14 years’ experience having worked for British Eurosport, Informa and Nineteen Group.
For more information, visit www.westernbusiness.media
Juan Señor is the President of INNOVATION Media Consulting Group in London - one the world's leading news media consultancies.
He has worked with and advised hundreds of media companies on every continent directing transformative projects. He also serves on the Advisory Board of several media groups.
He is also a former Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford.
He has been listed as one of 'The World's Leading Innovators' in Journalism and Media' by Journalism UK. Mr. Señor is a highly sought after commentator on the media industry, speaking at global forums and quoted frequently in leading publications such as The Economist and The Financial Times.
He is co-editor of two annuals books; Innovation in News Media and Innovation in Media, written on behalf of WAN-IFRA and the FIPP respectively. Altogether he has edited 32 books.
He worked for seven years as a war and conflict reporter for PBS's NewsHour. He then became a presenter for EBN-Wall Street Journal TV and CNBC Europe. And he served as London correspondent of International Herald Tribune Television then owned by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
His work has been nominated for an EMMY and his television programme, Media Report, was voted by viewers as Europe’s Best Business Programme.
He continues to work as a live event and television host and presenter. He has hosted the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for 14 years, Reinvention Festival for a decade, and dozens of public speaking engagements every year as a keynote speaker or moderator.
In addition to his passion for the media business, he is a campaigner for disabilities via means of fundraising expeditions to the ends of the earth.
He has skied unsupported to the North Pole, crossed the Western Sahara, trekked the Amazon, and organised the first-ever expedition to the South Pole of a team with physical disabilities.
A Spanish national, he was born and raised in Barcelona and educated in Europe and New York. He is conversant in six languages.
Sarah comes from a national media sales and consumer market research background having initially ‘cut her teeth’ with Mirror Group Newspapers. She has managed client portfolios and commissioned research on behalf of some of the largest advertising agencies in the industry.
Since taking the helm of CenturyOne in 2012, Sarah has transformed the business into a robust, multi-platform content marketing agency.
In 2018, the strategic acquisition of Cabbells – a long-established content provider for the arts – has further extended the groups portfolio and profile. Sarah has brought significant growth to CenturyOne, bringing content and team strategy best practices from bigger business experiences to an SME.
Andrea Thompson is Editor in Chief at UK Marie Claire, which has a combined audience of over 7 million women a month across its channels. She has overseen the brand’s journey to a digital-first brand over the past 18 months and regularly speaks on the topic of women's empowerment and diversity.
Andrea has worked as a journalist for a range of publications over her 20 year career including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Channel 4, Glamour and Grazia.
In her years as an undercover investigative reporter, she exposed everything from child labour in India to rogue doctors on London's Harley Street. She also went undercover to investigate the dubious property dealings of Donald Trump for The Daily Mail, a whole decade before he took up residence at the White House.
At Marie Claire, Andrea is passionate about telling the stories of those often marginalised by the mainstream media and oversaw a feature about rape in the Congo that won the title an Amnesty Media Award. She is passionate about supporting women's empowerment and championing sustainability and regularly chairs events around these themes. She is a member of the British Society of Magazine Editors and mentors young women trying to break into the media industry.
Mandy is Director, Magazines at BBC Studios. She is responsible for Top Gear magazine and Topgear.com as well as the strategic partnership with Immediate Media for the stable of BBC branded magazines. This is Mandy’s second stint with the commercial arm of the BBC having previously been the MD of Galleon (Dovetail). She has worked in roles across the publishing industry for her entire career.
Amanda is a specialist in the customer strategy, data and insight sector, working with companies to help them to put the consumer at the heart of their business to improve decision making and revenue generation.
Amanda has worked in the publishing industry for almost 25 years and prior to setting up AWC Limited she worked with the leadership team at TI Media as Group Customer Strategy Director. Here Amanda was responsible for data, insight and analytics. She also ensured customer knowledge and expertise was central to the growth strategy across content development, audience growth, marketing and advertising. Amanda has extensive experience across product development, innovation, customer experience, research best practices, and using data for revenue generation.
Amanda also works as a consultant for the PPA and represents magazine media on a number of audience measurement Boards, including PAMCo, ABC, UKOM Ipsos Iris and Project Origin.
Diane Young is co-founder and CEO of The Drum, which is a media company serving marketers and media people with news, events, insights, consultancy and other services. From a degree in pure and applied mathematics through a short stint in the health service, Diane has been instrumental in growing The Drum from 14 people in a damp basement in Glasgow to an internationally recognised B2B media company with offices in Glasgow, London, New York, Singapore and Mumbai.
As well as services which help marketers to prepare themselves for the future, she has led the team that has built thedrum.com into the third biggest marketing news platform in the world and is pursuing second and then first place! Diane is interested in marketing of course but also endlessly curious about the world of business and is a keen student on how to improve performance. She has done a TEDX talk and speaking engagements have included talks in the USA and Scandinavia and she is working on developing skills in TV production and presenting. Strangely she also finds herself being a pub landlady as The Drum Labs, The Drum’s new innovation centre in Shoreditch, has a bar that needs a licensee.
In her spare time she looks after her family of husband (who is also her business partner), three children, a dog, a pet mouse and an investment property portfolio.
