Jamie Byng
Jamie Byng (born in 1969) and otherwise known as The Honorable James Edmund Byng is credited with turning around the independent publishing firm Canongate Books from the verge of bankruptcy in 1994.
Family and education
He is the second son of the 8th Earl of Stafford and Jennifer May, brother to the author Georgia Byng and grew up in Abbotsworthy Hampshire. He was educated at Winchester College and Edinburgh University. While attending Edinburgh University he ran a funk, reggae and rare groove night club named Chocolate City (after the Parliament classic) at The Venue with his first wife Whitney McVeigh.
Publishing Career
After graduating, he convinced Scottish publisher Stephanie Wolfe Murray to give him a job at Canongate, then a respected but still somewhat marginalised Scottish company founded in 1973. When Canongate was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1994, Byng, then in his mid-20s, instigated a buyout, aided by his business partner Hugh Andrew, his stepfather (former BBC chairman Sir Christopher Bland) and then father-in-law (co-chairman of the multinational investment bank Salomon Smith Barney). His first move in overhauling the company’s image was to establish the ultra hip Payback and Rebel Inc imprints, dedicated to championing cult authors. 'The Pocket Canons’ (1998) was another brainwave: selected books from the Bible individually packaged with new introductions by the Dalai Lama amongst others. In the wake of the two-million selling, Booker-winning Life Of Pi, Canongate won Publisher Of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2003, reportedly posting pre-tax profits of more than £1 million for that year.