TLC is delighted to have appointed three new Advisors to its Advisory Board. We are thrilled that Crystal, Peter and Rakhee have agreed to join us, and look forward to working with them in the years to come as TLC continues to grow. Their blend of specialisms, across business strategy, creative partnerships, impact and evaluation, and editorial training skills, is central to these new appointments, and each brings with them a passion for and deep understanding of literature as an artform, and writers as practitioners whose voices we are here to champion and whose craft we are here to help develop. They join our current advisory board made up of Nick McMahon, Virginia Barry, Alison Baverstock, Jacob Ross, Craig Pollard, Tom Wilcox, and Helen Cosis Brown.
Crystal Mahey-Morgan began her career as a freelance journalist at the age of 16 writing for publications such as the Guardian and The Face Magazine. While still 16, she promoted a series of open mic events which were a fusion of hip hop and more conventional forms of poetry and was a performance poet herself. At the age of 19 Mahey-Morgan became Marketing Manager for Raindance Film festival and soon after embarked on a career within Publishing, firstly working as Literary Assistant at Peter, Fraser and Dunlop (PFD), then joining Random House in 2009. She left her position as Online/Digital Account Manager for Penguin Random House in 2014 to realise a long held vision of bringing fresh voices and new stories to market in representative, inclusive and pioneering ways. Mahey-Morgan founded OWN IT! – a storytelling lifestyle brand across books, music, fashion and film – in 2015 which she runs with Creative Director Jason Morgan.
Peter McKay was the Chief Executive of the Publishing Training Centre (PTC) until his retirement in 2018. He took on this role after a successful 34-year career in publishing. The PTC is a network of over 50 publishing and training professionals focused solely on delivering training courses for the publishing industry and developing publishing skills, including editorial skills training. Since joining the publishing industry in 1977 Peter worked in sales, marketing, operations and general management. In a career focused on educational, academic and professional publishing he always worked for companies leading the way in publishing innovation. He has also served on several industry committees at the PA and STM Publishers Association. Peter’s key areas of interest are: Strategic review and change, Translating strategy into operational plans, Change Management, Portfolio Review, New product development, Employee engagement, Stakeholder engagement.
Rakhee Jasani is a creative leader and innovator who has worked in participatory arts for 25 years as a producer, manager, deviser, facilitator, educator and evaluator. She is the co-founder of leading London based arts education organisation Eastside Educational Trust and served as its Director for 23 years. Rakhee’s skills are broad ranging and include devising projects, project management, fundraising, charity governance, evaluation, social media, marketing, strategy & business planning, partnership development and education & training. Rakhee is an arts assessor for Arts Council, England and also teaches yoga and creates content and writes for Movement for Modern Life.
