Tasker and Sedgwick become Cargo joint m.d.s

Gill Tasker [pictured] and Helen Sedgwick are to be the new joint managing directors of Glasgow-based indie Cargo Publishing, with founder and former m.d. Mark Buckland assuming a new role as director of special projects.

Current director and former Virgin Group executive Murray Buchanan will assume the role of chairman.

Tasker is currently Cargo's editor-in-chief, with Sedgwick editor-in-chief of digital-only imprint Cargo Crate. Both will assume their new roles with immediate effect.

Buckland will remain on the board of Cargo Publishing, which is five years old. He said the time was “right to move on to new opportunities”.

"Anyone in the industry who knows Gill and Helen, knows two exceptional, passionate individuals who have amassed a wealth of experience in publishing already,” he added. “With the creativity and drive of Murray Buchanan as chairman, I’m looking forward to watching our new team take Cargo to even greater heights.”

Tasker joined Cargo in 2009, and her titles include The Fractured Man by Juliet Conlin. Sedgwick joined Cargo in 2011, working on Elsewhere, Cargo’s four-book collaboration with McSweeney’s, and NeverSeconds: The Incredible Story of Martha Payne. She also works as managing editor of magazine Gutter and founding director of editorial services company Wildland Literary Editors.
 
Buchanan said: “I am delighted to welcome Helen and Gill to the board. They are both exceptionally talented and capable and have been integral to Cargo’s success from the start. I am confident that under their management Cargo will go from strength to strength, building on the foundations that Mark created with his passion, determination and enormous hard work.”

Sedgwick said: “What Mark has achieved in the past five years is extraordinary and with the wealth of talent at Cargo I’m sure that the next five years will be very exciting for all of us.”

Tasker said, “With our new team in place, we’re looking firmly to the future.”

Cargo has published authors including Ali Smith, Will Self, Roddy Doyle, Louise Welsh, Ewan Morrison and Iain Macwhirter.

Since 2011 Cargo has published the winner of the Dundee International Book Prize – the UK’s largest cash prize for an unpublished novel – most recently won by Nicola White for In The Rosary Garden.

Cargo’s foreign rights are represented by Faber & Faber, and the company recently announced that its books will be distributed throughout North America through a partnership with Trafalgar Square Press of the IPG.