At ‘The Markets’ conference on 10 October 2017, a part of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is on from 11 to 15 October 2017, five successful female leaders in publishing will discuss how they reached these top positions, will share their personal experiences, and will explain the challenges they faced along the way.

Arpita Das, who runs the award-winning independent publishing house Yoda Press, will be one of the five panellists.

Das is also the Curator of the Book Award for Excellence in Writing on Cinema and the Word to Screen Market at the Mumbai Film Festival every year. Over the last three years she was responsible for giving form to a cutting-edge Word Lab at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements in Bangalore. She is also the co-founder of a self-publishing platform called AuthorsUpFront.com. A few years ago, she was Adjunct Faculty on the MA in Publishing programme at New Delhi's Ambedkar University. She writes on books, publishing, popular culture and book culture for various well-known periodicals and platforms in India.

The other panellists are:

Tracey Armstrong is the president and chief executive officer at Copyright Clearance Center, bringing more than 20 years of experience in rights management with CCC to the industry. Leading the organisation through a period of phenomenal change and challenge, Tracey has helped transform CCC’s licensing solutions to meet the needs of today’s digital publishing world. She works with publishers, authors, universities, businesses and industry associations around the world, addressing copyright concerns and establishing new alliances. In addition, she frequently speaks at industry conferences and events as a thought leader on digital copyright licensing issues. Tracey Armstrong holds an MBA from Northeastern University and serves on the Board of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO).

Sophie de Closets was appointed publisher of Fayard in France in 2014, after ten years as a fiction and non-fiction editor. She graduated from the École normale supérieure, has a PHD in History, and taught history at Sciences Po Paris. She is the editor of Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Bob Dylan, Elizabeth Strout, Leslie Jamison, JP Delaney, and many others. She will publish the French editions of the forthcoming books by former US president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.

Xandra Ramos-Padilla is the managing director of National Book Store (NBS) and president of the award-winning Anvil Publishing. Xandra has a degree in Management Engineering from Ateneo de Manila University and her MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Xandra, the granddaughter of NBS founder Socorro Ramos, currently oversees the entire book store’s operations, managing its over 2,500 employees and devotedly finding ways to encourage more Filipinos to read.

Vicky Williams is the group HR director at Emerald Group and CEO, Research Media, and has over 15 years’ industry experience in scholarly publishing. She has grown company portfolios through product launch and acquisition and has developed a range of global strategic partnerships. Most recently, she has led the development of Research Media, a creative agency specialising in the research sector.

Jane Tappuni will chair the panel. She is currently the general manager at iprlicense.com which aggregates and sells IP online via a subscription based platform. Previously Jane had business responsibility for Ingentaconnect.com, the world’s largest portal of journals. She also has 7 years’ experience in platform technology and CMS for STM, Association and Academic publishers.

Now one of the most anticipated events of Frankfurt Book Fair each year, organised in cooperation with Publishing Perspectives, ‘The Markets’ conference’s theme this year is “Change: A 360-Degree View.” The day will also features:

• Zen Buddhist author Haemin Sunim (South Korea);
• Nielsen managing director Andre Breedt (UK);
• Orion Publishing Group managing director Katie Espiner (UK);
• Éditions Grasset chief editor for international literature Jean Mattern (France);
• HarperCollins India CEO Ananth Padmanabhan; and
• PTS Media Group managing director Arief Hakim (Malaysia).