Our Expert Team

I’ve worked with Simon over a number of years in the various roles he has held at Pearson. I’ve always found him to be an open and engaging colleague, with a positive outlook. He has excellent industry knowledge, particularly in the academic and schools publishing sphere (covering print and digital formats, for everything from traditional textbooks, to courseware, assessment platforms etc). Given that extensive knowledge base its not a surprise to me that Simon is now looking to utilise those skills in a consultancy role for his next challenge. I can see how his knowledge and experience would add value to authors, publishing houses and aggregators (retailers, libraries and wholesale) in rights management, strategic sales management and planning and content marketing’.

As a business we have worked with Simon for many many years. He has in depth knowledge across the educational and academic publishing channels embracing the multitude of complexities needed to bring a book to market and reach its desired destination and commercial goals. On a personal level Simon is an approachable, honourable and sincere individual who is able to make and take difficult conversations and decisions, not just the easy ones. His advice and guidance should prove constructive to anyone trading in this commercial channel’.

Simon’s role as Chair of the Governing Body came at a time when the school was going through significant change and striving towards school improvement. Simon led the school’s governing body to ensure all of the team played an effective and active part in the development of the school. His attention to detail and determination, ensured only the best outcomes. Simon’s relationships with all stakeholders was a key factor in his aspirations, resulting in the excellent reputation the school holds in the community today’.

‘We started working with Simon Pollard and the team at PGC in 2022 and it has been such a pleasure. They are energetic, polished, flexible, and friendly, and the knowledge they have passed on to our member publishers is invaluable for them in growing their sales. With a team that has such widespread knowledge we know that we will continue to collaborate with PGC with future projects.’

We have been working with PCG since July 2021. Simon Pollard and his team have been nothing but highly professional:
Simon has been able to gather a team of experts who, each in their specialty, have all provided very valuable insights and advice, as and when we needed it.
There has been a strong drive from Simon to reorganise our marketing and sales activities overall, something the PCG team has done very well, while keeping within the agreed budget.
Most importantly, Simon has been able to bring energy and enthusiasm for marketing and sales, a field that, as technology people, we had never really had an interest in.

Raintree was delighted that the PCG team brought energy and enormous insight into tackling our ‘Ask’, “how do we better understand our performance with Amazon and strategically grow sales”. They provided us with a clear and focused set of strategic priorities which we will now as a business employ. It’s been a pleasure to get to know Simon and the team and we would recommend their services to any business looking to understand how to improve performance with Amazon.

We were delighted to have the opportunity to work with Simon on our plans for developing an open access textbook publishing programme. Simon took the time to listen carefully to the brief and presented us with detailed plans for his approach for our input before proceeding. He brought in expert colleagues to cover particular areas of the work and scheduled regular catch ups along the way. This considered and thoughtful approach ensured that the report we received covered everything we needed, and we now have detailed information and plans for a marketing and dissemination strategy that will help us as we develop our programme. It was a pleasure to work with Simon and his colleagues and we would recommend PCG highly.

“Since March 2020, Simon has been working with BIC to help further develop our strategic partnership engagement, grow and diversify our membership base, and investigate new revenue opportunities. Simon is easy to work with, knowledgeable, highly professional and reliable. He is an expert in stakeholder management – building and maintaining strong relationships across the various sectors of the book industry, and has quickly become an advocate of BIC’s vision, strategy, activities and agenda. Despite the impact of COVID-19, Simon has succeeded in recruiting new members for BIC, which is a testament to his professional tenacity and dedication. I would not hesitate to recommend Simon’s services to anyone in the book industry.”

“Simon worked on a project for Kogan Page, investigating new sales channels to sell directly to senior decision makers within universities. I was impressed with his professionalism, market insight and approach to working with stakeholders across the business. Simon’s approach was collaborative and he helped us think through our requirements, and formulate a clear strategy, goals and sign off stages for the project, which was delivered successfully and was extremely beneficial in informing our wider sales strategy. I would highly recommend Simon’s consultancy services to anyone in academic and professional publishing”.

“Simon has outstanding abilities in building new business relationships, is very well informed in his field and provides intelligent focused solutions to any business issue. I recommend Simon very highly, he is a pleasure to work with, trustworthy, knowledgeable and highly accomplished.“

The work from Lucy and the PCG team have been a real asset for us. Lucy’s approach to firstly understand the core values of our journals programme, mixed with her expertise and valuable experience, helped us to successfully launch our journals marketing strategy and plan that we are confident of implementing. Lucy’s practical and meaningful delivery provided us with a clear plan and within the agreed budget. I would very much recommend PCG to any press or publisher looking to create high level marketing strategies and practical implementation plans.

“Lucy’s business orientation was a huge asset. She could be trusted completely to engage and execute on her people and strategic plans. Lucy’s Marketing knowledge, awareness and appetite were always apparent, and she was seen as a critical Subject Matter Expert in her area and commanded high levels of respect across all levels. It was always a pleasure working with Lucy.”

“Lucy worked with us to develop a brand strategy and brand identity, transforming the positioning and messaging for our business and for our individual services. Lucy then helped us to develop sales tools and content for the launch of our new website. I was incredibly happy with the level and quality of the work produced and would have no hesitation in recommending Lucy.”

“At every stage there has been Lucy has been very clear on what the options are and what the best option should be to our very specific demands.
Our experience working with Lucy has been nothing short of fantastic.”

“Lucy’s creative copy writing, and marketing strategies have exceeded our expectations at Jump. As a company we knew what we wanted to achieve, and Lucy made it happen.”

“Jason worked with us at Bonnier Books UK as a consultant on our digital business strategy. Throughout the process, he was an invaluable advisor and trusted member of our team. During each stage of the project, Jason collaborating in unison with our team, whilst demonstrating his meticulous approach to research and data-gathering. The reporting he delivered was brilliant – clear and articulate – and an invaluable resource for us as a business as we look forwards to our next stage of growth.

[Tash] was a total DREAM! She took on all that work and just ran with it. A capable, creative and multi-talented marketing supremo!

Lawrence created and led perhaps one of the most accomplished teams of international rights sales people in the publishing industry through a period of rapid growth and a time of very complex changes. He is a fantastic team leader, which is evident from the love and respect that his team members have for him and the steadfast performance of the group. I have been an internal customer for Lawrence and have also met with several of his external customers. He has built enduring relationships with his customers, nurtured with empathy and responsiveness and this is borne out by the goodwill he and his team have earned in the marketplace.

I worked with Lawrence and his rights team at Pearson for roughly twenty years. This was a period of great change and transformation at Pearson; but through it all Lawrence kept his team focused and effective. Lawrence often managed a delicate balancing act: he had to support the needs of his key international customers while also supporting the business objectives of the Pearson portfolio teams. These were sometimes at odds with one another. And as demand across international markets shifted and the makeup of his portfolio of titles changed, Lawrence had to ensure that his team was always focused on the best opportunities. He did a remarkable job. He was always collaborative, calm, and strategic. His team was always responsive and professional. It was a pleasure to work with Lawrence.

‘Liz has been a brilliant coach, who has the combination of experience, intuition and sensitivity to adapt her approach to what I needed.’