Adrian Newton joined New Scientist in 2018 where he is responsible for the management of all commercial activity for the business. His career started in publishing in the late 90s at the Builder Group. Following the business’ acquisition by UBM, he rose to the position of Publisher before becoming Director of a portfolio that encompassed magazines and large-scale events. Prior to joining New Scientist his focus had been predominately on events, launching and developing numerous exhibitions, conferences and festivals around the globe. He was personally responsible for devising and launching London Tech Week which has become Europe’s largest city-wide festival of technology.

Amy Ellis is Head of Rights and Licensing at Publishers’ Licensing Services. She is responsible for the delivery and ongoing development of PLS’ services including collective licensing, the PLSclear permissions service, and rights management initiatives. She works closely with publishers across all sectors to ensure the services PLS provides align with publisher needs as the industry continues to evolve.

Experienced Talent Lead with a career track record working within sport, creative, digital and content industries in the UK and globally including leadership roles at Sony Music and ECB (England Cricket). Emma joined Immediate in late 2023 and is responsible for leading the teams that work across talent acquisition and learning and development, playing a key role in the launch of IM Next Gen and IM Futures - a pilot programme to grow the pipeline of Immediate leaders and foster a culture of innovation. She has substantial experience in recruitment, assessment and selection, talent management, coaching and mentoring.

Gift is an ambitious and driven professional with a bachelor’s degree focused in Psychology from The University of Hull.

An experienced Brand Marketing Manager with knowledge on running marketing campaigns, advertising, creating and managing commercial brand, and PR campaigns.

Skilled in Ad Operations, Marketing, Advertising, PR, Google Ad Manager (GAM/DFP), Campaign Management, Brand Management, Social Media Management, Web Design & Management, Analytics, Media, Basic Photoshop, FL Studio, Logic, GarageBand, Customer Service, and Sales. 

Jackie Scully is exec director of the business and professional division at content marketing agency Think, helping organisations create content and commercial programmes that engage specialist communities. She consults with a number of organisations on their content strategies and also leads of Think’s annual Re:member research, which looks at trends in professional membership communications.

Previously, Jane led the Agency and Client Direct Sales division at Hearst and was responsible for driving commercial revenues and managing and developing relationships with influential media-buying agencies as well as key clients.

Working across 23 brands with multiple touchpoints, the Sales division incorporates specialist print, digital display, programmatic and creative solutions roles and is responsible for maximising revenues across all Hearst Solutions: Display Advertising, Branded Content, Data & Insight, Experiential, Licensing, Accreditation, Commerce, Purpose and Content Marketing.

Jane joined Hearst UK in May 2015 as Head of Commercial Operations, leading optimal commercial delivery across Hearst’s portfolio of print and digital brands. She has also held the position of Director, Hearst Made, where she oversaw the growth strategy of Hearst’s content marketing division. She joined Hearst from media agency Initiative, where she was Joint Head of Investment looking after the cross-media campaign delivery of Tesco, Amazon and Patek Philippe, among other clients. Jane’s media experience includes print, digital, TV, out-of-home and cinema both as a Client Director and leading Trading and Activation departments.

Experienced Head of HR/People/OD, with a demonstrated history of working with big brands and creative organisations. Strong human resources professional skilled in talent management, personnel Management, employee engagement, organizational development, and recruitment.

Maliha Shoaib is a reporter at Vogue Business, covering diversity and inclusion, social impact and luxury fashion.

She won the inaugural Vogue Business Talent Competition in 2020. Maliha graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, with a degree in English and World Philosophies, specialising in postcolonialism and cross-cultural analysis.

Nav is the Studio Manager for Haymarket Business Media (HBM), responsible for 16 podcasts spanning Medical, Marcomms, and Energy & Environment brands, including the PPA’s Podcast of the Year 2023: Room 106 by Planning.

Since becoming Haymarket’s first dedicated Studio Manager less than 18 months ago, Nav has already grown HBM's podcast downloads by 92%, while building a team of in-house producers. Nav joined Haymarket as a Publishing Apprentice in 2017 and has had a varied career at the company since, working in operations and editorial before taking on her current role, helping the business continue to accelerate its presence in the audio space.

In 2023, Nav was appointed as a member of the PPA’s first Next Gen Board, working in tandem with the main PPA Board. The same year she was also named the overall winner for ‘Emerging Talent’ in Haymarket's Global People Awards.

Rebecca Taylor is Retail Week Connect’s commercial content manager, and is responsible for helping to grow and deliver Retail Week’s bespoke sponsored reports and events, across themes from stores and the consumer to supply chains and tech.

With more than seven years' experience in content-focused roles, Rebecca specialises in across-the-board brand engagement and storytelling. 

Richie has several years of Diversity & Belonging focused experience, working with leading brands including: LUSH, Channel 4, BBC, Spotify, Viacom, BET, and more.

He is also a presenter, broadcaster, and host of the BBC's "1xtra’s Talks", a hard-hitting talk show exploring the lived experiences of Black Britain. He has amassed over 20 years’ experience in both youth services and the criminal justice system, specialising in CBT-based group therapy.

Sajeeda Merali joined the PPA as CEO in 2021, with an agenda to transform the way the PPA represents and supports its 300+ UK multi-platform magazine media brands.

A strategic leader with 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry, Sajeeda has held senior positions with both B2B and consumer-facing organisations, with extensive experience in change management and strategy development.  She joined the PPA from the New Statesman Media Group, where she was Chief Revenue Officer responsible for identifying high-value digital opportunities and launching commercial strategy for new brands in highly competitive markets. 

Prior to that, she was the commercial leader of the Insider Publishing Division at Euromoney PLC and has held senior positions at Incisive Media, where she was influential in driving cultural and strategic change.

Sajeeda is on the board of the Advertising Association, PLS, FIPP, CAP, PAMCo, and ABC.

In 2018 she won the WACL Futures Award and continues to be an active member, as well as co-founder of the Amal network, which champions Muslim women in the workplace.

Sophie is responsible for leading the marketing, data and customer success strategy of the European businesses in the Arc network including Agriconnect, Bridge2Food and Incisive Media. Sophie has a wealth of experience across all types of event models including expos, conferences and awards and has launched and managed a number of subscription and membership products. She is an accomplished leader with a proven track record of managing and coaching high-performance teams, has extensive hands-on experience of event and marketing platform migration and how to apply this into successful product development.

Sophie is a champion for improving workplace culture and staff engagement and is an industry mentor on the PPAs Next Gen Board.

Stuart Forrest is Senior Vice President, Audience & Marketing, at Future plc. He joined Future in October 2021 where he leads teams responsible for organic search, email and CRM, performance marketing and audience data across Future's diverse portfolio of brands, including household names such as The Week, TechRadar, Marie Claire, and GoCompare.com and with a monthly reach of more than 300m users.  

Stuart has over 25 years experience in B2C media with a track record of building and monetising digital audiences in verticals such as Automotive, TV & Entertainment, Leisure and Lifestyle, parenting and Food.