Directorate Change

RNS Number : 9361J

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

23 July 2013

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

23 July 2013

Annual General Meeting announcement on Board developments

At its Annual General Meeting today Bloomsbury Publishing Plc ("Bloomsbury") announced the appointment of Jill Jones as an Independent Non-Executive Director effective from the close of the AGM. Commenting on the appointment Jeremy Wilson, Chairman of Bloomsbury said, "The Board is delighted to welcome Jill Jones as an Independent Director and looks forward to working with her in the years to come. Jill brings to the Board exceptional experience in digital and print publishing and digital content products centred on Bloomsbury's key strategic area of academic publishing. "

Jill Jones is an independent publishing consultant and during her career has held senior positions in leading publishing services businesses. From 2008 until 2012 she was President and CEO (EMEA) of Cengage Learning, a leading digital information and print services global provider for teaching, learning and research solutions. Before this she has held positions in Pearson Education, Thomson Learning, Longman and Prentice Hall. Jill has worked in Higher Education and Schools textbook and revision publishing, English Language Teaching and reference publishing including the development of large electronic and primary source material databases. She is former Chair of the Academic Publishers group at the Publishers Association.

There is no other information required to be disclosed pursuant to Listing Rule LR 9.6.13. The appointment of Jill Jones follows a comprehensive search process using an independent search firm.

Bloomsbury also announces that Jeremy Wilson will retire as Chairman of the Board over the coming year. Commenting at the AGM Jeremy Wilson said, "I have greatly enjoyed my time at Bloomsbury after eight years as an Independent Director on the Board including six as its Chairman. Bloomsbury has adapted rapidly to the challenges of the digital era. Its business model of an integrated consumer and academic publishing house is well suited to the next stage of its development in an exciting and rapidly changing industry."

The recruitment of a successor to Jeremy Wilson is underway and Jeremy will step down once his replacement has been found. Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury, said: "All at Bloomsbury would like to thank Jeremy Wilson for his fine chairmanship. He has ably led the Board for many years and we have been lucky to have him".

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