An Industry-Led movement to
bring Gender Equality to
World Publishing

Bodour Al Qasimi is a global leader in the publishing and cultural industries and a passionate advocate for reading and literacy. She is the Chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority, which manages the Sharjah International Book Fair, the world's largest book fair. Bodour has founded several organizations to boost the UAE's publishing sector, including the Emirates Publishers Association, the UAE Board on Books for Young People and Knowledge Without Borders. She is also the founder of Kalimat Group, a global publishing and edtech company.

Bodour Al Qasimi served as the International Publishers Association's second-ever female and first-ever Arab President, and she is the founder of PublisHer, a 1,000+ member global community of female publishing leaders. She is a tireless advocate of cultural diversity and inclusion, and her work has helped to transform Sharjah into a global cultural hub.

GeumJoo Lin (인용인, her native Korean name) calls herself a professional Digital Content Specialist (DCS) with technology in her heart and demonstrated career for decades in diverse domains of publishing, edutech, and the content security industry. At the same time, she has worked across the copyright, licensing, editorial, digital content publishing & distribution to digital watermark and DRM as content protection technology. As a co-founder and managing director at CO.MINT Inc., she is leading three business pillars of rights agency, consulting, and digital content distribution of Korean language ebooks and audiobooks. From 2017 to 2022, GeumJoo Lin led Storytel's audio publishing business in South Korea, and from 2016 to 2017, she performed a pivotal role in making a successful Korean launch of the Harry Potter series in digital ebooks both in Korean and English editions. During the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2023, GeumJoo Lin presented the showcase of an AI-based innovative digital service platform, 'MatchWHALE by CO.MINT', to introduce Korean books and trends to publishing professionals and individuals who follow the Korean culture wave. She has contributed most of her expertise from diverse professional experience in the publishing industry to conceptualize MatchWHALE to make it easier to rights matchmaking and digital content distribution at a global scale in Korean language or other native languages.

As her continued interest and focus on the development of digital content in the time of the 4th industrial technology such as metaverse, blockchain, A.I. and IoT, she has been following the market and I.T. trend of South Korea and overseas in the content and publishing industry. She became a judge, frequent speaker, lecturer, and writer for Korea's Digital Book Association, KPIPA, and KOCCA of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea on the topic of publishing, ebooks, audiobooks, digital content trends, and copyrights in digital environment. She has been invited to speak at global venues such as APA (Audio Publishers Association) and Sharjah International Book Fair in 2022 & 2023, AbuDhabi Book Fair 2023, and Readmagine 2023 in Madrid, Spain.

She is studying at Ewha Womans University, the Graduate School of Law, for 'the future of copyright in the era of the 4th industrial Revolution' as an extension of her bachelor's degree in law to solicit the conversation and movement toward the harmonious application of innovation technology and law for our future content industry. In June 2023, she took a key role in holding PublisHer's Seoul Conference during the Seoul International Book Fair to introduce PublisHer into Korea's publishing industry to facilitate and nurture the culture of participation in diversity and gender equality at the global level.

Sandra Tamele holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture but her love for languages and reading spurred her to literary projects. In 2007, she published the first work that she translated and has since translated 21 novels and short story collections written by, among others, Nobel Literature Laureates Wole Soyinka and Naguib Mahfouz. Understanding the importance of translation, in 2015 she started hosting an annual literary translation competition among young Mozambicans which led to the establishment of her publishing house Editora Trinta Zero Nove. Tamele and her publishing house were recipients of the London Book Fair International Excellence for Literary Translation Initiatives Award in 2021, and the BOP Children’s Books Publisher of the Year in 2023. She was the recipient of a PEN Translates Award in 2022 for Tchanaze by Carlos Paradona. Loose Ties, her translation of Yara Monteiro’s novel was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award in 2023. She was elected the first President of the Mozambican Publishers and Booksellers Association.

Rosidayati Rozalina (Ida) is co-owner and President Commissioner of PT Remaja Rosdakarya, a family-owned publishing and printing company founded by her parents, based in Bandung, Indonesia. She also founded her own publishing company, PT Mekar Cipta Lestari in July 2020. Ida is a past President of the Indonesian Publishers Association (IKAPI), and is now on the Advisory Board. She was a member of the Programming Committee and vice chair of the Organizing Committee for the 33rd International Publishers Congress, in Jakarta.

Lola Shoneyin is writer, publisher, bookseller, festival curator and cultural activist. Her works include three books of poems and six children's books. Her debut novel,The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011. In 2021, she produced a documentary called ‘Flowers for Warriors’. Shoneyin lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria.

Lisa Lyons Johnston’s career in the entertainment and publishing industries spans three decades. She has represented Canadian publishing on official cultural trade missions to China and Latin America, is a sought-after speaker at major international book fairs and media industry conferences and is a global champion of the UN Publishers Compact.

Lisa’s early experience with a multinational publisher, combined with her track record in television content distribution in New York and Toronto, led to a distinguished career at the helm of Kids Can Press, a leading Canadian children’s publisher that was awarded the Bologna Prize for Best Publisher, North America under her leadership.

Recognized with numerous industry awards, Lisa’s board experience and appointments align with her goals to advance literacy and equity for girls and women.

Elena Pasoli is Director of the Culture B.U. of BolognaFiere and Director of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF), member of the Executive Committee of the Italian Centre for Book and Reading and of the Executive Committee of Ibby - International Board on Books for Young People. In the last years her work has focused on the international development of the Fair, bringing it to become the co-organizer of the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) and organize various children’s illustrations exhibitions in more than 20 countries. Thanks to this activity, Elena won in 2018 the international Eric Carle Honor prize in the Bridge Category. Before her current position, she had been events manager at BolognaFiere and directed the Communications department of the University of Bologna Foundation. She has a degree in Classic Literature.

Flavia Alves Bravin has over 25 years’ experience in publishing and is the Head of Saber Education, in Brazil, with leading imprints and brands that are reference from K-12 to Higher Ed. and part of Cogna Group, one of the largest private educational organizations in the world, where she is also a partner.

Flavia is active within the Brazilian publishing trade associations. She is currently the Vice-President of Abrelivros (Brazilian Association for Educational Content), a Director of SNEL (in the Institutional & Technical Council for the Brazilian Union of Book Publishers) and is a former President of ABDR (Brazilian Association for Copyright). She is also a Board Member of Minha Biblioteca – a consortium of Brazilian publishers offering a digital content platform for universities.

Flavia holds a PhD from the University of Sao Paulo (FEA-USP) and has also attended the Stanford Professional Publishing Course (SPPC) at Stanford University, Leading Change for Organisational Transformations at London Business School. She teaches as a Professor in Leadership and Publishing (FIA Business School and MBA in Book Publishing).