Clare Somerville

I am a senior lecturer in the Journalism, Publishing and Media team, teaching the careers and employability modules on the MA Publishing and BA Media and Communication courses. I am also Undergraduate Admissions Tutor for the department. Prior to joining the teaching staff, I was a member of the Kingston Publishing industry advisory panel and the external examiner for the MA Publishing programme.

As a practising industry professional, I have held board-level positions within major UK publishing houses, including Hachette UK, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Egmont and Reed Elsevier, specialising in international sales and marketing, PR and communications, operations and supply chain.

Alongside my teaching at Kingston, I work as a freelance consultant within the publishing and not-for-profit sectors, most recently managing the GDPR data privacy implementation project for the Hachette Group and working as the COO of a charity promoting fitness and wellbeing for older people.

Through my work in the juvenile/educational publishing sectors, I have a particular engagement with improving literacy, and sat on the publisher committee of the Reading Agency for 10 years from its launch in 2006.

• PGDip Commerce with French City of London Polytechnic (now City University)
• BA (Hons) French with English University of Bristol
• FHEA