Joanna Prior

, Pan Macmillan

An empathetic and purpose-driven leader, Joanna Prior has had a major impact in her two years as CEO of Pan Macmillan, a top five publisher founded in 1843 and headquartered in London with offices in Australia, India and South Africa.

Last year Pan Macmillan celebrated its best year ever growing 8% in the UK 12% and 12% globally. The company also grew its UK sales value 5.3% through Nielsen’s Total Consumer Market (TCM), outperforming market growth five fold and increasing market share to 5.9%. This included dazzling fiction growth of 13.1% value, more than triple the market rate of growth and the fastest growth of the top five publishers.

On top of delivering record-breaking commercial results, Joanna led the launch of our new core values and Making a Difference programme, with highlights including the company's partnership with The Black British Book Festival including a successful new mentoring scheme, Writers on the Rise and the Gift a Gruffalo campaign: part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s best loved, iconic character, the partnership with The National Literacy Trust and WHSmith donates a copy of The Gruffalo to a child in a disadvantaged community for every copy of a Gruffalo book sold.

Despite strong representation of women across trade publishing (66% Publishers Association UK Publishing Workforce Survey, 2022), Joanna is the only woman CEO of a top five publishing company. She is committed to supporting women in business and leadership positions, as demonstrated by a piece in Management Today exploring why there aren't more women CEOs. The leadership team is 75% female and during her tenure she has appointed Briony Grogan from News UK to steer Pan Macmillan’s culture and people strategy and drive diversity, as well as recruiting Lois Bray as corporate communications director, who joined the company 32 weeks’ pregnant and took an eight month maternity leave before returning in December 2023.

Joanna’s progressive approach is evidenced through Pan Macmillan's enhanced family leave (six months’ fully paid for all parents as well as the option of having a year off in total for all parents), menopause policy, a new third-party professional coaching programme for employees returning from parental leave and new apprenticeship scheme with LDN Apprentices. Joanna also actively seeks out feedback from the Pan Macmillan team through yearly engagement surveys which has led to solutions such as a new intranet and annual employee awards.

She appointed Sara Lloyd as Global AI lead - making Pan Macmillan the first publisher to recognise the strategic importance of AI with a dedicated leadership role. This promotion has significantly driven innovation, enhancing and future proofing employees’ skill sets and strengthening engagement with the company's proprietary AI tool.

Joanna is a vocal and passionate advocate for literacy and - as well as successfully leading Pan Macmillan - she chairs The National Literacy Trust, steering the vitally important work they do in tackling the country’s literacy crisis and overseeing the charity's growth of 25%.