Bloomsbury Publishing Appoints Keith Underwood as New CFO & COO

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (LSE:BMY) has announced the appointment of Keith Underwood as its new Chief Financial and Operating Officer. Underwood, who currently holds the position of Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Guardian Media Group (GMG), will join Bloomsbury on 2 February 2026. This timing allows for a seamless transition alongside the current Group Finance Director, Penny Scott-Bayfield.

Underwood will report directly to Chief Executive Nigel Newton and will become a member of Bloomsbury’s Board of Directors.

Before his current role at GMG, where he also served as Interim CEO, Underwood was Chief Financial and Operating Officer at Channel 4 and spent more than eight years as part of its Executive Committee. His career experience also includes senior positions at Discovery Networks International, Sky, and PwC. He is a Chartered Accountant and serves as a Board member of Digital Catapult.

Expressing his enthusiasm about the appointment, Nigel Newton, Founder and Chief Executive of Bloomsbury, said: “significant media, finance, operations and AI expertise.” Newton highlighted that Underwood joins at a pivotal time as the company pursues opportunities in Artificial Intelligence, licensing content for future revenue while improving operational efficiency.

Commenting on his new role, Underwood stated: “I am delighted to be joining Nigel Newton and his team at Bloomsbury. Bloomsbury has achieved hugely impressive growth with an increasingly diversified, high-quality portfolio distributed across more geographies, in more formats than ever before.”

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