Midas founders Williams and Mulliken to retire from roles

Midas PR founders Steven Williams and Tony Mulliken (pictured) are retiring from their executive roles at the end of the year, 30 years after setting up the agency, with Jason Bartholomew becoming sole chief executive officer.

The pair will remain as consultants with the firm until the end of March 2021, to honour client commitments held over from the cancellation of the London Book Fair.

In 2018, the duo sold the majority stake in the business to a small group of staff and investors in a 2018 management buyout (MBO). Since then, they have stayed active at Midas, working to transition parts of the business to Jason Bartholomew, Tory Lyne-Pirkis and Georgina Moore.

They said: “We are rightly proud of the company we founded. We planned the MBO and the subsequent changes in order to create a legacy for Midas so that it will remain strong for the future. We are therefore delighted that we will be leaving the company at the end of the year in such great shape, with a terrific leadership and management team and, importantly, with Midas remaining such a fun place to work.”

From today, Bartholomew, previously joint chief executive officer, becomes sole c.e.o, while director of books and publishing Moore joins fellow director Lyne-Pirkis on the board.

Bartholomew said: “This is a bittersweet moment for Midas. Steven and Tony have built the company into the UK’s leading independent agency for publishing, culture and the arts, and all of us in the company rightly salute this achievement. Since I started with the company as joint c.e.o. two years ago, we have been following an agreed plan of transitioning the business to the new management team which is now firmly in place. We will move forward to maintain the high standards Steven and Tony have set for our long-standing clients, as well as finding ways to grow and future-proof Midas for the next 30 years.”

He told The Bookseller that future-proofing would include dropping “PR” from the company name as it looks to expand. As demonstrated by a recent book deal for Melanie Blake, the firm also hopes to move into the rights business long-term while also developing a training centre for people who want to get into publishing and the arts.

He said: “What I'm doing is looking at Midas and saying what we can offer here. We're not just PR, we're going to lose the PR part of our name. We do branding, we do marketing, we do crisis PR, we do website and social media help, so I really want to advertise these things more, rather than people coming to us and saying they just need a three-month campaign. We're already doing so much more than that without advertising it really.”

Steven Williams

Williams told The Bookseller his main focus on leaving, after would be to spend time with his grandchildren and at his house in Italy while painting watercolours, though he admitted: “Probably the first priority is to rest after 30 years at the helm.” Mulliken said he also hoped to continue supporting colleagues in Sharjah, where the company has helped build two fairs for over a decade.

But they both said the move away from Midas was a difficult one, despite the company's unusual beginning. Mulliken said: “When I suggested this business to Steven 32 years ago I have to say he was less than enthusiastic, and that is an understatement. For all those people who know Steven they'll know what I mean.

“But, I have to say we've been a kind of odd couple working together because we are quite different as characters and, like in so many marriages, it's the opposites that attract and in all of those years I don't think we've ever had an argument. I think we've had the odd disagreement in terms of wondering if we should do something or not but we've never ever fallen out. I find that incredible, I've certainly fallen out far more times with members of the family than I have with Steven. It's been an amazing ride really because we've enjoyed it, we've loved being with each other.”

Williams has previously admitted “I made my excuses and left” when Mulliken first suggested going into business. But he said: “I've never regretted reversing that decision. It's been an amazing 30 years and it's not over yet.”

Both men put a lot of the success down to securing blue-chip core clients such as the London Book Fair, Sharjah and Audible. For Williams, a particular highlight was Midas' work at Hay in 2001 when Bill Clinton paid a visit and the world's media descended. “It was just an amazing day when he came,” Williams said. “That's probably one of my standout memories but there are lots of them.”

But they said their staff had been the key factor in making Midas a fixture of the literary landscape. Mulliken explained: “I'm terribly pleased that with Jason at the helm now that Midas has a really exciting future, it's got a good foundation. I think that Jason, with the help of Tory and Georgina, they're the new young Turks and they'll do much better than Steven and I did.

"I think we've been blessed to have such talented staff because they lead the company and they've made Steven and myself look good. That's staff at the moment and in the past. That's paid enormous dividends.”

He added: “I'm going to miss the day to day staff I have to say, because of that camaraderie in the office and the humour that prevails at Midas. It's always been fun. I think we've laughed pretty much every day so I hope they can continue that laughter.”