CAREER 

 Since the laissez-faire underground press of the late '60s when web-offset  printing and computer typesetting began displacing hot-metal and  letterpress, Mark Williams has spent his entire career in publishing. A  respected, if sometimes controversial journalist and columnist in the  disparate  fields of rock music, film and automotive media (see below), he  also conceived, launched and/or edited several successful magazines and  newspapers which included Strange Days, Bike (still the UK's best selling  motorcycle title), Which Bike?, New Music News, Bicycle Buyers  Guide and Jalopy.

In the '90s, after a spell editing and successfully re-launching (with two editions) a weekly newspaper in Mid-Wales, Williams joined the Pearson Group in time to help negotiate their purchase of Future Publishing and then went on to establish Future's hugely successful international division which embraced licensing, joint ventures and wholly owned overseas subsidiaries. 

Thanks to unrivaled experience in virtually every aspect of print media, come the millennium Williams became sought after as a consultant working with publishers both large and small. (Confidentiality deters him from detailing these on this website). In recent years he's handled foreign licensing and M&A deals, supervised business plan development, launches and re-launches and advised on every element of the publishing process which now of course includes multi-platform projects. He is also retained as p.r. advisor for a number of companies and charities. 

And throughout his career in publishing management, Williams has continued to write highly regarded columns and features for a broad range of titles including Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, Top Gear, Motorcycle Rider, Time Out, Conde Nast Traveller, Italia!, TrailBike Magazine, the Guardian, London Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph and Used Car Buyer. He has also produced a number of books on film, music and motorcycling topics, plus two anthologies of material from The Week.

Outside of publishing, Williams has curated a number of art and photographic exhibitions and been  involved in running several musical events, most notably Sheep Music the annual world music festival in Mid-Wales.