The PLS Board has appointed Rosie Glazebrook as its new Chair with effect from 1 April 2019.  She takes over from Mark Bide who retires at the end of May having completed six years in office. Like Mark, she will also become the co-Chair of the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA).

Rosie Glazebrook, who will be PLS’ first female Chair, is a Commissioner, Civil Service Commission, a Council Member of the General Optical Council and Chair of a Research Ethics Committee for NHS Health Research Authority. Before building her extensive non-executive career in the private, public and voluntary sectors, Rosie worked in the publishing world and is now a Trustee and Chair of the Development Board of Book Aid International.

Mark Bide has presided over significant development during his chairmanship, including the establishment of licensing for magazines through NLA media access, steering PLS through the first-ever independent rights valuation in 2015 and being responsible for PLS’ strong governance within the recently introduced regulatory framework. He has been very influential in achieving excellent levels of collaboration and co-operation with the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and all its members with the result that CLA, PLS and Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) now share offices; in 2014, his role was extended to co-chairing CLA (alongside the Chair of ALCS) and in that role he has overseen five years of unprecedented corporate change and development as CLA has prepared itself for a digital future.

Lis Tribe, head of PLS’ Remuneration Committee, who led the search for a new chair commented “Mark Bide has been an exemplary Chairman throughout his six years at the helm and the Board thanks him warmly for his huge contribution to ensuring PLS is robust and fit for purpose.

We are delighted to welcome Rosie as Chair of the PLS Board and co-Chair of CLA. Her career as a senior non-executive director, largely in the public sector, her work in complex stakeholder environments, her wide experience of digital change and transformation and her strategic approach are amongst the many elements of her background that make her ideal for this role.”

Commenting on her appointment as Chair of PLS and co-Chair of CLA, Rosie Glazebrook said “I am delighted and honoured to be appointed and look forward to contributing to the future development of PLS and CLA.”

Welcoming his successor, Mark Bide said “I am delighted that PLS has found such an appropriate Chair, whose experience beyond the publishing industry will be invaluable for the challenges facing both PLS and CLA. As I prepare to step down, I want to record my thanks to the PLS Board who have so ably supported me throughout my tenure and also to my colleagues on the CLA Board. I have much enjoyed working with two able and dedicated CEOs and their talented management teams. I am confident that Rosie has a firm foundation on which to build.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

Rosie Glazebrook currently holds a portfolio of roles – Commissioner, Civil Service Commission (since 2017) where she provides independent scrutiny and chairs appointment panels. She is a Board Member of the Food Standards Agency (since 2016), Council Member of the General Optical Council (since 2015) and Chair of a Research Ethics Committee for the NHS Health Research Authority (since 2013). She is also a Trustee of Book Aid International and The Bhutan Society Trust Fund (since 2011).

Previous roles include Commercial Director for Dr Foster Ltd (health data publisher) (2001-2004) where she developed contracts and partners across the health sector. She also led large-scale health research and data collection, developing web content for pioneering consumer health information. Earlier in her career she was Publisher (News International Enterprises), where she exploited new products, licensing, publishing and reader services, and Marketing Manager (Times Newspapers Ltd) (1998-2001) where achievements included the 'free books for schools' campaign.

Mark Bide, appointed PLS Chair in 2013 completes his term of office in May 2019.

Mark has had had an unbroken and close association with the organisation since the mid-1990s. He has worked in and around the publishing industry for over 45 years, having been a Director of the European subsidiaries of both CBS Publishing and John Wiley & Sons, and subsequently for many years an industry consultant with a particular interest in the application of technology to the management of copyright on the Internet.

Among his other industry roles, he served for 5 years as the Executive Director of EDItEUR, the global trade standards organisation for the book and journal supply chains. In his role as Chair of PLS, he is co-Chair of the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Publishers’ Licensing Services provides collective rights management services to publishers by overseeing collective licensing for book, journal, magazine and website copying. PLS also provides permissions and other rights management services to the publishing industry. Established by publishers for publishers and owned by the industry, PLS is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1981 owned and directed by the four publishing trade associations, ALPSP, IPG, PPA and the PA.

Copyright Licensing Agency is the recognized UK collective rights licensing body for text and images from book, journal, and magazine content. It exists to simplify copyright for content users and copyright owners. It does this by helping content users to legally access, copy, and share the published content they need, while also making sure that copyright owners are paid royalties for the use of their work.

CLA also offers a range of services that are revolutionising the management of content such as its Digital Content Store (DCS) for higher education. Since the launch of this innovative rights, content and workflow platform, 110 higher education institutions have adopted it and it has facilitated 5 million student downloads, making it one of the leading sources of content on UK campuses.   

Contact

Robert Stein, Communications Manager, PLS on r.stein@pls.org.uk or 020 7079 5938.