Sanphy Thomas hired as JKP's m.d.

John Murray Press has appointed Sanphy Thomas, currently executive head of marketing at SAGE, as managing director of Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Thomas has over 20 years' experience serving academic communities and niche markets, both in the UK and internationally.  Most recently she has been involved in shaping SAGE's textbook, professional and digital strategies as executive head of marketing, contributing to revenue growth year-on-year since 2007. She has also previously worked at Palgrave and Routledge.

Sanphy will take up her new position on Monday 8th October, based at JKP’s offices in Kings Cross where she will report to John Murray Press m.d. Nick Davies and join the John Murray Press board.

Hachette UK bought Jessica Kingsley Publishers to become an imprint of John Murray Press in November 2017, JKP's 30th anniversary year. The press' founder, Jessica Kingsley, retired from her role as m.d. then, but continued to work on a consultancy basis until earlier this summer.

Founded in 1987, JKP has achieved year-on-year revenue growth for the past 30 years. It specialises in social and mental health sciences, with lists devoted to autism and social justice, while new areas of commissioning include gender diversity and Chinese medicine under the Singing Dragon imprint. The company was the first IPG "Independent Publisher of the Year" in 2005, and won "Independent Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year" accolade at the British Book Awards in 2016.

Davies, John Murray Press m.d., commented: "Finding a successor to Jessica who founded JKP at her kitchen table and grew the business each year for 30 years was never going to be easy, but I am absolutely delighted to have found Sanphy Thomas. Sanphy combines a warm and supportive leadership style with a sharp business brain, and is completely in tune with the JKP ethos of publishing “books that make a difference”. Sanphy has enormous experience of publishing and promoting books to specialist markets and has played a pivotal role in the impressive growth of the books business at SAGE. We very much look forward to her joining JKP in early October."

Thomas said: "I’m thrilled to be joining JKP, a publisher with an impressive portfolio of inspirational books, a strong social justice agenda and a record of exceptional commercial success. The company’s remarkable growth is testament to the vision and passion of Jessica Kingsley and the commitment and talent of JKP staff. I am very much looking forward to working with them to steer JKP’s future at this pivotal stage of transition."