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Bodour Al Qasimi

Founder, PublisHer;

CEO-Founder, Kalimat;

Immediate Past President, International Publishers Association.

Sheikha Bodour is Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and President of American University of Sharjah where she oversees the institution’s mission of contributing to Sharjah’s socio-economic, workforce, and innovation priorities. She is forging deeper university-industry R&D and commercialization collaboration as Chairperson of the Board and President of the Sharjah Research, Technology, and Innovation Park, a $150 million initiative to position Sharjah as a global leader in emerging technology fields.

As Chairperson of the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, Sheikha Bodour has mobilized more than $4 billion in foreign direct investment, created more than 20,000 jobs and contributed to a 78 percent growth in Sharjah’s gross domestic product. Her work as Chairperson of Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa) has supported 150 startups that have raised $128 million in investment and created 1,400 jobs.

Sheikha Bodour also serves as Chairperson of Sharjah Book Authority, which manages the Sharjah International Book Fair, the world’s largest book fair, and operates Sharjah Publishing City, the world’s first free trade zone for publishing. Sheikha Bodour established the Emirates Publishers Association, UAE Board on Books for Young People, and Knowledge Without Borders to boost the growth of the UAE’s $300+ million publishing sector.

She founded Kalimat Publishing Group, a global, multi-imprint publishing and edtech company, and she served as the International Publishers Association’s second-ever female and first-ever Arab President. She is also the founder of PublisHer, a 1,000+ member global community of female publishing leaders addressing publishing’s diversity and inclusion challenges.

Arpita Das

Arpita Das is the Founder-Publisher of Yoda Press, an independent publishing house based in New Delhi, India. From 2009 to 2013 Arpita also ran an independent bookstore in New Delhi, called Yodakin, which became a hub for book culture-related events and discussions. In 2013 she created a self-publishing platform called AuthorsUpFront, and from 2016 to 2018 she founded and curated the Word to Screen Market at the Mumbai Film Festival, bringing book and screen industry professionals together for the first time in India.

Arpita also founded and directed a writing festival focused on Indian cities, called City Scripts, for the Indian Institute of Human Settlements in Bangalore between 2014 and 2017.

She frequently writes on book culture, publishing, popular culture, gender and bibliotherapy for various outlets, and gives workshops for authors and editors. Arpita has also taught as Visiting Faculty on the Creative Writing Programme at New Delhi’s Ashoka University, and as Adjunct Faculty at the School of Business and the School of Creative Expression, at Ambedkar University.

Latoya West-Blackwood

Latoya West-Blackwood is a publisher, creative project manager, and consultant, based in Kingston, Jamaica, whose creative industry work focuses on promotion of cross-cultural understanding, gender equality, inclusion, and social justice. With Latoya as its chair for two terms, the Book Industry Association of Jamaica has strengthened its work to promote reading and literacy as tools of transformation, with a focus on early-grade reading and access to literature for all, particularly people with disabilities.

Latoya was a member of the National Consultative Committee of Latin America and Caribbean Reads (LAC Reads), a USAID-funded project implemented in Jamaica by EduConnect. LAC Reads works to fill research and knowledge sharing gaps in teaching and content development in early grade reading, delivering 30 new culturally relevant titles for children. She was recognized by the Yale School of Management Publishing Course as the 2020 International Innovative Leader in Book Publishing Awardee.