|
eXact publishing working in partnership with Richmond publishing
 Print this article
June 2009
‘transform experience into expertise’
Alan Jackson, Managing Director of Richmond Publishing talks to ELT
NEWS
Alan Jackson is well-known in Greece. Many of us who started our career
in the 80s remember with nostalgia the full to capacity classrooms in our
schools, the coursebooks we used, the publishing companies and their
representatives who would visit us every two or so years to talk about their new
books –not so many at the time.
Successful coursebooks became best sellers overnight and enjoyed a long
and happy life before reaching maturity.
I remember Alan very well. He was a
dynamic, hard-working and ambitious young man.
He often came to the foreign language school we ran in the 80s –sometimes
accompanied by OUP’s authors- and talked to Andreas.
We became friends. After about ten years Alan left Greece but we always
met him in Frankfurt – at the International Book Fair. Though Alan was extremely
busy, he found some time for a chat and a drinkt.
Alan was recently in Athens –this time as Managing Director of Richmond
Publishing. His business plans have put Greece in Richmond’s map. Richmond has
established a partnership with a new publishing company –eXact. But let Alan
talk…
“I started my ELT career in Greece in 1977 after
graduating from university and I taught in a foreign language school in Kozani
for a year. That was my first exposure to the day to day life of frontisteria.
However, the weather was rather cold in Kozani so I decided to come down to
Athens. I taught at Saint Catherine’s British Embassy School for three years and
then I got the opportunity, in 1981, to join OUP as an ELT representative.
I was the only representative at that time and travelled around Greece for a year and a half. That was an even greater exposure to reality which enabled me
to see the ELT business from a different perspective.
Then I was promoted to the position of Area Manager for Greece, Cyprus and
Israel. I stayed in Greece until 1988. After that I went to Spain. In those days
Greece was the second largest market in the world for OUP - the first was Spain.
For two years I was based in Madrid where I was the General Manager. It was
an enlightening experience. Then I moved back to Oxford and became European
Sales Director.
While in Oxford I kept contact with Greece and Spain because I knew these two
countries, but, I was also responsible for opening new markets in Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet Union.
I did a lot of traveling for five years within that region and then I was
appointed Sales and Marketing Director for Latin America based in Mexico
City.
I lived there for almost two years before being offered the job of Sales and
Marketing Director at Oxford for the whole world. So I took that global position
which was the role I always wanted to do and was based in England for several
years.
In 2004 I was offered a fantastic opportunity by Richmond. After 23 years
working with OUP, I moved again to Madrid where the Headquarters of the parent
company –Grupo Santillana- are, as Managing Director for Richmond Publishing.
I’ve been with Richmond for four years setting up new businesses, which has
been fantastic. We have publishing centres in various places, including Oxford,
and we have an expanding team producing titles for the international market.
We are very close to the teaching community through our local publishing
centres. We publish books for all levels and ages up to university level. That’s
how we operate.
One of my key responsibilities is to maintain the quality and appropriacy of
the publications so that teachers and students enjoy and benefit from using our
materials and get results!”
What brought you back to
Greece?
“First of all I love Greece very- very much –my mother was
from Kalamata-, so I have a long-standing association with this country. On this
occasion I am here on business.
Richmond Publishing has recently established a strategic alliance in the
Greek ELT market with a new publishing company, eXact publishing, run and owned
by Agapi Tsiakiri and Christopher Kavallieratos.
Richmond publishing and eXact publishing are going to work in harmony and
Agapi, Christopher and the team will be responsible to promote eXact’s and
Richmond’s titles to the ELT community.”
Why are you forming an alliance with eXact
publishing?
“Greece is an important country in Richmond’s plans for
geographic expansion. In Europe we are already firmly established in Spain,
Italy and Poland.
We now have the ambition to put a high-level of energy and resources into
developing the Richmond and eXact publishing partnership for the benefit of
schools throughout Greece.
I also value very highly the experience, market knowledge and professionalism
of both Agapi and Christopher and I know that very many school owners will be
delighted to be collaborating with them and Richmond from now onwards.”
The market in Greece is
saturated…
Agapi: “We are not afraid of the
challenge. We have excellent locally based authors writing materials for eXact
publishing, an experienced sales team to promote them and well known teacher
trainers to provide the best service to the school owners and teachers.
Working in partnership with Richmond publishing will give us a greater range
of titles for more segments and sectors in the Greek market supported by
excellent resource materials.”
Alan: “We feel that with the right sort of materials and
with the right catalogue, we will make an interesting and rewarding contribution
to the language school teachers in Greece. In my experience FLS owners and
Directors of Studies are always willing to review new material and are
quick to respond positively to new opportunities.”
Why this name –eXact?
Christopher:
“Because we aim at publishing “exactly” what teachers and students need. And we
will be of course working closely with teachers to reassure that.”
?gapi: “eXact will be publishing supplementary materials but
not coursebooks; these will come from Richmond. That’s why we decided for eXact
to exclusively represent Richmond in Greece & Cyprus.Richmond Publishing has
the recourses, the expertise and the knowledge to produce appropriate books to
cover all needs.”
Are you optimistic?
Christopher: “Experience has shown that in most cases
optimistic people are simply not well informed pessimists. So instead, I would
prefer to say that we are extremely confident.”
Agapi: “We are down to earth people. We know what it entails
to run a publishing company these days. We know what we want to achieve and
how.”
Agapi has a long experience in ELT acquired in Pantelides Bookshops, in
Heinemann, for 9 years and OUP for 13 – 8 years as the Area Manager.
Christopher “grew up” in an ELT environment, as his family has been running a
Private Language School for more than 30 years. After working there for two
years, he joined OUP where he worked for almost four years before establishing
eXact publishing.
Will you be visiting Greece more often now,
Alan?
“Of course! I’d love to reconnect with people I knew a
long time ago. I’ll be here in August…for holidays –I have a house in Athens-
and I’ll come again in September to attend the important book exhibitions and
visit schools.”
Anastasia Spyropoulou
(anastasia@eltnews.gr)
<< Back
|
