Profile
Victoria Barnsley was appointed Chief Executive and Publisher of HarperCollins UK in July 2000. She joined HCUK when the company she founded in 1984, Fourth Estate, was acquired by HarperCollins Worldwide. During her five years at the helm, Barnsley has filed record profits and HarperCollins has won the much coveted Publisher of the Year award.
Before running HarperCollins UK, Victoria Barnsley founded and ran Fourth Estate UK, building an enviable reputation for discovering seemingly esoteric books and turning them into best-sellers. The company was the first-ever winner of The Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year award in 1988 and was named Publisher of the Year at the British Book Awards in 1996, making Victoria Barnsley the only CEO and Publisher to have won this award twice. In 2004 Victoria Barnsley was the only woman shortlisted for the ‘Business Leader of the Year Award’ at the National Business Awards.
Victoria Barnsley has been a trustee of the Tate since 1998 and in May 2005 also became a Trustee of the National Gallery and a Fellow of UCL. Married with one daughter, she lives in Notting Hill Gate, London.
