Oxford University Press has begun the process of finding a successor to Sir Roger Elliott, the present chief executive, who will retire on 31st August.
An advertisement in this week's Bookseller invites applications from candidates "of considerable commercial and managerial ability" combined with an understanding of the special character and functions of a university press, whose record in their careers to date must be one of "outstanding success". Those careers, if not in publishing, may have been in industry, the professions, education, or other appropriate fields, the ad says.
Sir Roger, who joined OUP in 1988, was formerly proofessor of physics at Oxford. Last March he was elected vice president of the Publishers Association.
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Oxford University Press
Appointment of CHIEF EXECUTIVE
The Delegates of the Oxford University Press will shortly be appointing a successor to the present Chief Executive, Sir Rogr Elliott, FRS, who will retire on 31 August 1993. The Oxford University Press has a substantial annual turnover in excess of £150m and extensive international operations, with offices in some 52 countries, employing over 2,500 staff (roughly half being overseas), and is one of the world's leading publishers. In 1991 it was awarded the Queen's Award for Export Achievement.
The Chief Executive (who is also Secretary to the Delegates) has overall responsibility for the management of the Press in the United Kingdom, in the United States, and in all its branches throughout the world. The post demands considerable commercial and managerial ability combined with an understanding of the special character and functions of a university press.
Applicants must have a record of outstanding success in their career to date, which, if not in publishing, may have been in industry, the professions, education, or other appropriate fields. The age of retirement is 62.
Salary is open to negotiation. The appointee will be qualified to take a professorial fellowship at a college of the University.
Further details of this appointment and information regarding the form of application may be obtained by writing to the Vice-Chancellor, University Offices, Wellington Square, Oxford OX 1 2JD (envelopes should be marked 'OUP - Confidential').
The closing date for applications is 12 February 1993
The University is an Equal Opportunities Employer
Who, everyone wants to know, will succeed Sir Roger Elliott as secretary to the delegates and chief executive of Oxford University Press? I am told the press is at a loss, finding little of sufficient calibre elsewhere in publishing to satisfy its extremely demanding requirements.
The word is that the best bet is on the appointment of another academic. Sir Roger himself, who though due to become President of the Publishers Association, is expected to return to his chair of physics when he retires from the Press in the summer. An alternative scenario has one of the divisional chiefs booted upstairs - Asquith (Arts and reference), Peter Mothersole (ELT), Fiona Clarke (education), Ed Barry (New York), or Bill Andrewes (finance director and deputy secretary). A less widely-expected scenario is the appointment of Tim Rix, ex-chief executive of Longmans, and now a non-executive director of the Press.
But the conversation at college dinners suggests that the delegates would prefer the interface between Gown and Grub Street to be controlled by an academic, and the appointment of one such into a sort of non-executive chairman's role is made possible by the fact that OUP has strong divisional managing directors. Moreover, the argument goes, contrary to expectations in some quarters, OUP has done rather well since Sir Roger took over the reins.
One person who is unlikely to apply is Richard Charkin of Reed, who was an unsuccessful contestant for the post George Richardson vacated in 1988. As an acquaintance put it: "Richard would apply only if the university did something it hasn't done for 500 years - say it's sorry."
It seems impossible to keep Sir Roger "Rabbit" Elliott, chief executive of Oxford University Press, due to retire in August, out of this column.
When the mandarins of the Publishers Association elected him Vice-President a couple of years ago it was with some relief in that (a) they were offering obeisance to our leading University Press; and (b) as Sir Rabbit was retiring from the Press in 1993 there was no way he could succeed popular Paul Scherer of Bantam as President.
This was to underestimate the guile and ambition of Sir Rabbit, still in search of that elusive peerage. It has just been announced that he has kindly agreed to come out of retirement next year to succeed Scherer as President of the PA - to start with for one year, rather than the traditional two, but no doubt Bunny will make himself available for a further 12 months.
In a report from the front, the current Bookseller discloses that OUP is having difficulty finding a successor to Sir Rabbit, and that he may be succeeded not as previously assumed by a professional publisher, but by another academic. Has it not occurred to them that it would be the simplest thing in the world, or at least in the university, to change the stipulation that the chief executive of the press must retire at 65 and to extend Rabbit's contract? Perhaps he could combine the job with the chair of physics to which he is expected to return in 1994? He is, after all, a Renaissance man.
James Arnold-Baker, chief Executive of BBC Enterprises, will succeed Sir Roger Elliott as secretary to the Delegates and chief executive of Oxford University Press when Sir Roger retires on 31st August. Sir Roger, who joined OUP in 1988, was formerly professor of Physics at Oxford. In April he agreed to serve a year as president of the Publishers Association. His retirement will not affect this position.
Mr Arnold-Baker, a graduate of Oxford and the London Business School, was appointed chief executive of BBC Enterprises in 1986; he joined the BBC's Board of Management in 1991.