Our Board of Trustees

Our President: Nigel Newton

Nigel Newton was born and raised in San Francisco. He read English at Selwyn College, Cambridge and in 1986 started Bloomsbury Publishing. Nigel was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to the publishing industry.

Nigel has previously served as a member of the Booker Prize Advisory Committee, Chairman of the Charleston Trust, Chair of World Book Day, member of the Publishers Association Council, Trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Chairman of the British Library Trust, and head of the Selwyn Association.

Book Aid International is a phenomenal organisation with the admirable ambition of bringing books to all. They shape people’s lives through the books they donate and the skills that those books give people.

Dr Alice Prochaska, Chair

Dr Alice Prochaska has led some of the world’s most important libraries and archives. She has served as a board member of the Bodleian Library and Yale University Press, worked at the UK National Archives and as Director of Special Collections at the British Library and led one of the largest research libraries in the world as University Librarian at Yale.

As Chair of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Standing Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations Dr Prochaska joined the fight against the destruction of libraries in areas of conflict. She has a special interest in the preservation of international heritage collections and has published, curated exhibitions and broadcast on topics dealing with archives and libraries.

Dr Prochaska holds the degrees of MA and Doctor of Philosophy in Modern History from the University of Oxford, and she served as Principal of Somerville College Oxford 2010 to 2017. Her other interests include the history of women’s education and diversity in universities, and in her spare time she volunteers with homeless and refugee charities.

Zainab Umar, Vice Chair

Zainab serves as the communications lead at Elrha, a subsidiary of Save the Children focused on finding solutions to complex humanitarian problems through research and innovation. She is responsible for disseminating the life-changing impact of the research and innovations work and for shaping Elrha’s media strategy.

She also sits on the Steering Committee for the African Youth Network Movement, incubated by the Mandela Institute for Development Studies.

Zainab has over fifteen years of experience across government, international think tanks and not-for-profit sectors. She also has significant PR and reputation management experience across multiple markets and is a recipient of the 2020 Gold SABRE awards for a public relations campaign. She holds an MA in Public Service Management and a BA in International Relations from London Metropolitan University. 

Alexandra Jones, Honorary Treasurer

Alex Jones is a Chartered Accountant with broad financial experience having worked in various publishing businesses in the past 20 years. She spent eight years as Group Finance Director at Hodder Education during a period of diversification and expansion into primary school content and international operations. More recently she has held strategic and operational senior finance roles at The Economist Group and now at Delinian, a specialist data and events business. Alex also spent nine years on the governing body of a south London primary school, including as Chair, and is a strong believer in the power of reading and education to change young lives.

Susan Hutton, Trustee

Susan is a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants qualified accountant. She is currently the Director of Finance & Resources at Womankind Worldwide and in the last 20 years has also held senior positions with London Sport, the Zoological Society of London, Save the Children, BBC Media Action and Restless Development.  Susan is passionate about empowering others and ensuring that her work adds value to organisations working to make a positive difference in people’s lives and also serves as the non-executive Treasurer of Citizens Advice Lewisham.

Dr Anne Makena, Trustee

Dr Anne Makena is the Co-Director of the Africa Oxford Initiative, a platform that facilitates impactful partnerships between Oxford and Africa-based institutions and develops bespoke programmes to support the next generation of African changemakers. Anne completed her DPhil in Chemical Biology as a Rhodes Scholar and is currently taking an Executive MBA. She has worked in building networks for research excellence, bridging the research-impact divide and advising on equity in partnerships. Anne believes in the power of robust education and research ecosystems to build innovative, equitable and prosperous societies.

Dhivya O’Conner, Trustee

Dhivya O’Conner is a charity leader with 24 years’ experience. She is the CEO of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and was previously CEO of The Girls’ Network, United World Schools, Chartered Institute of Fundraising and Children with Cancer UK. She sits on the Steering Committee of Groundbreakers, a network promoting women leaders, and is Governor of a state primary school. She has also held various strategy, business development and leadership roles in the for-profit sector, including at GE Capital, Lloyds Bank, and OctopusTravel (now part of Expedia Group). She is the creator and executive producer of The Charity CEO Podcast and has also volunteered with NGOs in India, South Africa and Cambodia.

Alan Hurcombe, Trustee

Alan Hurcombe is a Chartered Accountant who has extensive experience across finance and operations in publishing.  Most recently he was Chief Operating Officer at Hodder Education, a division of Hachette UK. Here he was responsible for commercial and strategic financial support with operational responsibility for supply chain, production and content development, including design and editorial functions. His role also focused on the digital transformation of the Education business, including new cloud and AI based platforms and modern data analytics.

Prior to Hodder, he held senior leadership roles across finance and operations in publishing. As Chief Financial Officer at Egmont UK, he had oversight of Egmont’s European operations including Germany and Poland and sat as a Non-Exec on the Board of Australian joint venture Hardie Grant Egmont. Before Egmont, Alan spent 10 years with Scholastic, rising within finance to CFO within 4 years and then went on to lead Scholastic as Group Managing Director for 3 years.

Michelle Okwudiafor, Trustee

Michelle Okwudiafor is a strategic communications specialist with over 14 years’ experience in Nigeria and the UK. She currently leads Communication and Engagement at TotalEnergies UK. Michelle has worked on projects aimed at improving basic education, enabling technology and teaching employability skills, including leading the communications strategy for a three year, $2m project providing access to quality education for 15,000 marginalised children in Northern Nigeria. In 2020, Michelle founded Career Invest as part of her work advocating for belonging and inclusion. She regularly delivers workshops on personal branding, inclusion, allyship, confidence and Personal Impact.

Lee Newman, Trustee

Lee Newman is the Education and Children’s Publisher at Collins, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, with overarching strategic responsibility and accountability for Collins’ education publishing.  She also directs Collins children’s publishing under the Barrington Stoke, Rocket Bird Books, and Collins children’s non-fiction imprints.
Lee spent ten years as a governor and latterly Chair of Governors at a primary school in Hertfordshire, as well as three years as a non-exec director of HFL Education.  She is currently Chair of the Education Publishers Council at the Publishers Association and is also a founding co-chair of the HarperCollins Social Mobility network.

Lee is passionate about trying to mitigate and reduce disadvantage through education, creating books and services that positively impact children’s lives, and that support and empower teachers and parents.