Our Leadership Team

Diana Gerald MBE has been BookTrust’s Chief Executive since 2015. She is a Trustee of the Mohn Westlake Foundation – one of the UK’s largest grant givers in supporting disadvantaged children and young people in the arts, culture and education. She is Deputy Chair of Creative Education Trust, a network of schools in disadvantaged areas of the Midlands and East of England, and also Chair of the Bentley Wood Trust, an outstanding school in Stanmore. 

She joined BookTrust from the Arks Schools Group. Other previous roles include at the Young Foundation and in consultancy for local government. She began her career in the commercial sector at Boston Consulting Group.

Annie has been BookTrust’s Co-CEO since 2025, after acting as Deputy CEO since 2022. Before coming to BookTrust in 2018, Annie Crombie was CEO of the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies, and prior to that a senior civil servant at the Department of Education, where she spent 15 years working across a range of children and education issues from legislation and youth justice to adoption reform and the early years. She began her career as a history teacher in London secondary schools. Alongside her work at BookTrust, Annie is a member of the Learning and Participation Committee of the Royal Ballet and Opera. 

Colin joined BookTrust in January 2017 as Chief Operations Officer, and has over 25 years of experience as a senior supply chain and operations professional. Colin leads the delivery of our supply chain at BookTrust and oversees our information management systems.

Prior to joining BookTrust Colin ran his own consultancy business for seven years, specialising in developing strategic supply chain and business operations solutions for national and international print media businesses, including Egmont, Hearst International, Telegraph Media Group and News UK. 

Mike Bues joined BookTrust as Finance Director in January 2023 and leads the financial strategy planning and financial operation of the organisation. 

Prior to joining BookTrust, Mike has 18 years of Finance experience, and has held senior roles in the IT and Wholesale sectors.

Lizzie Catford is BookTrust’s Director of Children’s Books. Lizzie oversees BookTrust’s collaborations with publishers, authors, illustrators and the wider books sector. This includes selection for our book gifting programmes, reviews and recommendations, prizes and the Children’s Laureate. Prior to BookTrust, Lizzie worked in the publishing sector for nineteen years at some of the UK’s most influential curriculum and children’s book publishers. 

Most recently, she was a Publisher at HarperCollins UK, with responsibility for the publishing strategy for primary schools. 

Katie joined BookTrust in July 2025. As Director of Communications, she oversees our strategic communication and marketing approach to ensure that we engage multiple audiences and stakeholders across the full breadth of our work. 

Prior to joining BookTrust Katie worked in Government Communications. She brings with her over 25 years of experience of delivering local and national campaigns to improve education, health, and social care outcomes. In her last role Katie helped to establish Social Work England as a brand-new regulator for the social work profession. She is passionate about nurturing regional communications talent and has been recognised by AMEC and The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising for her evaluation of award-winning behaviour change campaigns.

Julie joined BookTrust in 2020 after a long career at the then Prince’s Trust, where she worked to support young people facing disadvantage. At BookTrust, she leads the organisation’s scaled delivery through partners across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Passionate about improving opportunities for children, families and young people, Julie brings over 25 years of public sector experience, including work in both policing and local government.

Ruthann Hughes, Director of Research and Impact, leads our monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) and research work, supporting BookTrust’s growth as an evidence led organisation. She has extensive experience of leading insight activities for national and international NGOs.