Iman Ben Chaibah

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Iman Ben Chaibah currently leads the Onshur Fund under the Sharjah Book Authority — the Sharjah Publishing Sustainability Fund — which provides incubator and accelerator programs to empower and scale Emirati publishers. In addition, she heads the strategic initiatives and global markets of the Authority, bringing to the role over two decades of expertise across publishing, technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership.

Iman is the founder of Sail Publishing, a small Emirati publishing house operating for over 10 years, publishing in both English and Arabic, across all genres, in digital and print formats.

She previously served as Vice President of the Emirates Publishers Association Board from 2019 to 2023. She was awarded the UAE’s Young Digital Publisher Entrepreneur Award by The British Council, selected as a delegate to the International Achievement Summit in San Francisco, received the Young Entrepreneur Award from Startup Businesses Magazine, and was honored with the Arab Woman Award in Literature.

Iman completed the Magazine Publishing Course at Yale University and was a fellow in the Rosalynn Carter Journalism Fellowship in Mental Health, using her publishing platform to raise awareness on mental health issues. Books published under Sail have also received numerous awards and recognitions in the UAE.

Shatha Nasser

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Shatha Nasser is a librarian at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library in Dubai and the founder of Kairos, a newly established publishing house dedicated to translating literary classics into Arabic. With a background in psychology and a master’s degree in mental health law, she brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to literature, translation, and cultural accessibility.
A polyglot and passionate reader of award-winning international literature, she launched Kairos with the support of the Onshur program and grant, identifying both a gap in the Arabic literary market and a market within that gap.Kairos specializes in translating canonical works from their original languages—Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese—into Arabic, with its inaugural titles including Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo and La vida del Buscón by Francisco de Quevedo.
With Arabic as her mother tongue and a lifelong engagement with global literature, her mission is to amplify cultural exchange and deepen Arabic literary offerings through faithful and inspired translation.

Étienne Breault

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Étienne Breault is Director of Business Development at De Marque, a leading digital services company in the publishing industry. With more than 15 years of experience, he has built deep expertise in sales, operations, and strategy, particularly in educational publishing.Before joining De Marque in 2018, Étienne led Pearson ERPI’s higher education division, where he helped shape and expand its digital offerings. His in-depth knowledge of the publishing ecosystem, combined with strong relationships across the industry, positions him at the forefront of evolving market needs—especially when it comes to helping publishers navigate the shift to digital.At De Marque, he leads a team focused on creating new opportunities for publishers through digital distribution, licensing, and innovative technology solutions. Étienne is passionate about building partnerships that support sustainable business models and long-term growth for publishers in Canada, Europe, and beyond.

Svitlana Odnopozov

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Svitlana Odnopozov is a Project Manager at PocketBook, a global e-reader company, where she leads accessibility initiatives from web compliance to eco-friendly packaging and device functionality. She is also responsible for product certification, technical documentation, and the implementation of EU regulatory compliance.  With a degree in mechanical engineering and a background in cultural management and education, she has over a decade of experience in training and project coordination. Prior developed educational systems for NGO in Israel and India, and has been a mentor and teacher of Indian philosophy and theology for years.

Federico Lang

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Federico Lang is a bookseller at Librería Luces in Málaga, Spain, and founder of the Global Book Crawl, a new international initiative that connects independent bookstores through collaborative literary events. With over 20 years of experience in the book industry, he has worked for international publishers such as Oxford University Press and McGraw-Hill. Federico is deeply committed to promoting reading, cultural dialogue, and the role of bookstores as community hubs, and actively supports innovative projects that highlight the social and cultural impact of independent bookshops.

Marius Sobczak

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Marius is a Managing Director of inkBOOK Europe, second biggest producer of e-book readers in the European Union and e-reading systems developer including iOS and Android mobile reading applications. After getting his degree in Business Management he has been working for international companies on managerial level. Fifteen years ago he joined the digital content industry. Co-running inkBOOK (formely ArtaTech) he has been involved in development of “e-reader as a service” idea, that turns the electronics e-reader devices into highly customisable white label platform, easily integrated as part of any e-reading service.

Giovanni Hoepli

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Giovanni Hoepli
Vice President, International Publishers Association
Executive and Vice President, Hoepli S.p.A.

Giovanni was born in Milan in 1966 and joined Hoepli S.p.A. in 1994. Founded in 1870, Hoepli S.p.A. is a publishing house with a leading role in scientific, academic, and educational publishing, and is the owner of one of Milan’s most renowned and historic independent bookshops.

Over the years, Giovanni has played an active role in the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) and, since 2003, has also been involved with SIAE, the Italian collecting society. From 2015 to 2023, he served on the Executive Committee and other key committees of the International Publishers Association (IPA). In January 2025, Giovanni was appointed Vice President of the IPA.

In addition to his professional work, Giovanni has a deep commitment to social causes. He volunteered with the Milan ambulance service for 13 years and, since 2009, has been actively engaged with EMERGENCY, the international NGO based in Milan that provides free, high-quality medical care to victims of war, poverty, and landmines. He is also a Co-founder and Vice President of EMERGENCY Switzerland Foundation, established in 2012.

Sonia Draga

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Sonia Draga – the founder and owner of the Sonia Draga Publishing House. Entrepreneur, interpreter, photographer, writer, social activist. Born and brought up in Silesia, she has graduated from the University of Economy in Katowice. Before going into the publishing industry, she was distributing car audio equipment. Sonia Draga Publishing House was established in 2000 and in a few years’ time it has developed into one of the biggest entities on the book market in Poland. Its offer includes mainly contemporary fiction, biographies, reportage and popular science. In 2012 Sonia Draga was chosen the Best Publisher of the year 2012 and named „the publisher with a nose for good books”. Indeed, she was the one to bring Dan Brown and EL James to the Polish market.

Keen on foreign languages, she has translated several books from English. Apart from English, she speaks also French, Italian and Spanish.

Sonia Draga is also an author of several books illustrated with her own photographs: „Mexico – a country of contrasts”, „South Africa – a country of surprises” and an album with own photographs „World in My Camera” and of many articles written for a Polish literary magazine

She was a hostess of the TV program on books „Silesia reads”. Sonia Draga hosts many important functions in the Polish book industry, since 2008 she was a member of the board of the Polish Book Chamber, and its President in years 2020-2024. She was also a member of the management at the Book Fair Ltd. – the company that organizes major book fairs in Warsaw, Gdynia, Szczecin and Katowice. She is involved in many actions promoting the readership. For many years she was also a member of the board at Regional Chamber of Commerce in Katowice.

In November 2022 she was elected the Vice-President of FEP (Federation of European Publishers), and since November 2024 she’s been the President of this organization.

In 2015 she was awarded the National Order of Merit by the President of France for distinguished achievements in promotion of French literature.

In 2021 Sonia Draga Publishing House was awarded Premio Nazionale per la Traduzione, for the achievements in bringing Italian authors to Polish readers.

The company owns three bookstores: in Warsaw, Katowice and Chorzów – all three combined with a café, that enables organizing events. Sonia Draga Ltd. also possesses 100% shares in a children’s publishing house DEBIT. To meet the expectations of new target groups of readers the publishing house publishes also graphic books under imprint NON STOP COMICS, YA fiction as Mlody Book and non-fiction under its new brand Post Factum. The whole Publishing Group SONIA DRAGA publishes around 200 new titles per year and around 50 audiobooks.

Having long time experience in the publishing world she was asked to lecture Marketing in Publishing at the Silesian University, the academic year 2023/2024 will be the fourth year of this practice.

Mauro Morellini

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After an extensive experience in educational publishing, contributing to the development of innovative materials for schools and academic institutions, Mauro Morellini has founded the Morellini Editore publishing house in 2005, with focused on travel guides, fiction, and non-fiction works. Morellini is also the creator of Extended Book (www,extendedbook.org), a groundbreaking international project that integrates traditional publishing with digital innovation, enhancing the reader’s experience. He has held key roles in Informazioni Editoriali, a leading company in publishing data management, and IBS.it, one of Italy’s most prominent online bookstores, where he contributed to the digital transformation of the industry. Additionally, he actively collaborates with the Italian Publishers Association (AIE), supporting the growth and evolution of the publishing sector. With a strong commitment to cultural dissemination, he continues to shape the Italian publishing landscape, earning respect as a visionary and influential figure in the field.

Anthony Lorin

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Tony Lorin was named President, International, in May 2020. He is responsible for McGraw Hill’s business serving the K–12 and Higher Education markets outside of the U.S., distributing McGraw Hill products in 75+ languages to more than 100 countries across the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India and the Middle East. Before being named the group’s President, Tony served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for McGraw Hill International, and as Global Head of Financial Planning & Analysis before that. Throughout his career, Tony has spent significant time living and working in Asia, Australia and Europe and is well-travelled in Latin America, India and Canada – all important markets for McGraw Hill.

Before joining McGraw Hill Education in 2012 as CFO for Asia-Pacific, Tony held various positions at The McGraw Hill Companies in Paris, Sydney and Singapore. He began his career as an Auditor at PwC.

Tony holds a Master’s degree in Finance/Audit from Tours Business School in France. He is based in London.