Neil O’Brien is Commercial Director at NLA media access and as such oversees all revenue generation for this publisher owned business that returns c£40m to publishers last year.

He started his career over 30 years ago as a Management Trainee at what was then IPC Magazines before moving to run The Publishing Team, one of a new wave of publishing agencies. In this time, he was Chair of the Association of Publishing Agencies (APA), the precursor to The Content Marketing Association (CMA).

After a stint at FT Business magazines, Neil joined the management buy-out team at Puzzler Media and remained there after its subsequent purchase by D C Thomson. He then moved to head up DCT’s magazine publishing operation in Dundee.

He joined NLA media access in 2016 and leads the licensing sales, client services, business development and publisher services function. On the latter he’s keen to use his previous experience to ensure that NLA always maximises the value it offers to publishers.