Adimora to leave HarperCollins to work on personal projects

Nancy Adimora is leaving HarperCollins to work on personal projects before taking on consultancy projects with HarperCollins and other businesses in the publishing industry. 

Adimora rejoined HarperCollins in the role of talent and audience development manager, diversity and inclusion, in February 2020. She had previously joined HarperCollins in January 2017 through the company’s traineeship scheme, after which she became events manager, covering maternity leave, before leaving the business in late 2018 to work at Twitter and on her own projects.  

Her last day will be 18th March. During her time in the talent and audience development role, Adimora has brought in books for Fourth Estate with Toni Tone’s I Wish I Knew This Earlier, and Borough Press with Of This Our Country, a collection of personal essays from 24 acclaimed and award-winning Nigerian writers with commissioning editor Ore Agbaje-Williams. She has also worked with Mills & Boon on developing a new editorial and marketing partnership with Amber Rose Gill aimed at attracting romance writers from underrepresented backgrounds. 

She was also instrumental in the creation and allocation of the Marketing Fund, an audience development project that provided additional funding and resources for the promotion of books by Black, Asian and ethnic minority authors across divisions. 

Charlie Redmayne, HarperCollins c.e.o., said: “It has been fantastic to have Nancy back at HarperCollins. Nancy has made an invaluable contribution to the business; working with teams to find the best talent from diverse communities and at the same time helping our marketing teams to reach audiences more effectively. We wish Nancy every success with her publishing projects and look forward to working with her in future years.” 

Adimora added: “I’ve loved my time at HarperCollins and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to return in this new role, which has been the most rewarding and transformative experience of my career so far. It has been a privilege to work with so many talented and inspiring authors and colleagues, and I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve achieved together. While I’m taking a step back from this role, I’m committed to finding and amplifying great stories that reflect and shape the world around us, so I’m looking forward to continuing to support teams in a new way, while creating more space to work on a broader variety of creative projects.” 

She can be contacted at hello@nancyadimora.com.