Emma Lowe has been named director of the London Book Fair, succeeding Adam Ridgway, who is retiring after a 36-year career in conferences and exhibitions. Lowe becomes director in July; previous fair director Gareth Rapley, now interim portfolio director for the London Book Fair at RX, owner of the fair, will oversee the fair until then.
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| Emma Lowe | |
Lowe has more than 20 years of experience in the book industry, starting at RX working at the London Book Fair as head of sales. From 2014 to 2023, she was commercial director at the Bookseller, where she led such events as the British Book Awards, FutureBook, and the Marketing & Publicity Conference. She then worked at GlassBoxx as publishing account director and most recently was head of events at HarperCollins UK, which included planning the publisher's pre-London Book Fair party.
David Roche, non-executive chair of the London Book Fair advisory board, said: "Emma Lowe is the ideal person to lead LBF, particularly with the resurgence of book fairs post-Covid and a fully operational Olympia coming on stream over the next couple of years. She has a unique set of skills and experiences, having worked for Reed/LBF and the Bookseller, for publishing services companies, and in the progressive industry giant, HarperCollins. This combination will be welcomed by the trade, as will Emma's empathetic personality and winning persona, as well as the stability her appointment brings. The LBF advisory board and I look forward to working with Emma and her team."
Lowe commented: "The London Book Fair was my runway into this wonderful world of books and I'm delighted to be returning at such an important moment for in-person businesses. We are an industry that thrives on face-to-face interaction and the moments when we come together are absolutely vital to our publishing ecosystem.... Opportunities like this don't come up very often and having gone from the Bookseller to a tech disruptor, to a big four publisher, I am hugely excited to be getting back to my roots at the centre of the trade, and reinforcing London as the natural home of the international rights business."