Directors
Eddie Bell,
Non-Executive Director.
Eddie Bell grew up in Airdrie and left school at the age of 16, in his own words, "completely unshackled by an O levels or A levels".
He became a clerk at Inverhouse Distillery where he went on to train as a blender (a job that he says he still misses to this day).
Because he needed a car and the only way to get one was to become a Salesman, he joined Kaye Gibson Greeting Cards as a Trainee Rep. His sales career continued in several posts in various industries before joining Hodder and Stoughton Book Publishers as their Scottish Representative.
Eddie rose through the ranks to become Deputy Managing Director of Hodder and Stoughton, before being head hunted to become Managing Director of Collins Publishers. He became its Chairman and Publisher in 1990, after a successful time in America where he founded Harper Paperbacks and helped merge Harper and Collins to create one of the largest book publishers in the world.
Throughout his publishing career, he has published some of the world’s top selling writers:-
- Jeffrey Archer
- Stephen King
- Sidney Sheldon
- Barbara Taylor Bradford
- Jung Chang (Wild Swans)
- Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes)
- Tom Clancy
- Joan Collins
- David Niven
- David Frost
To name but a few!
He also published Mikhail Gorbachev’s Perestoika, Lady Thatcher’s Memoirs and John Major’s autobiography.
He is now Non Executive Chairman of OAG, a private Content Management Company in the Airline Industry and is a Partner in The Bell Lomax Literacy Agency. He holds a number of Non Executive Directorships.
He is married with three children, plays golf, collects old books and is a fanatical Arsenal supporter.