Tim Horsler
Tim Horsler is an educational publishing specialist (and an EfC Associate since the beginning of 2008) with over thirty-five years experience of publishing educational materials from primary to post-graduate level for international markets.
He has provided consulting and training services on book sector matters (market research, strategic publishing planning and financing, national book policy, book evaluation and procurement, sales and promotion, rights etc) for a wide range of clients and donor agencies in many countries for over twelve years, nine of which have been as a Director of EfC.
He has also served as a senior manager and Director with the Africa and Caribbean Division of Longman (textbooks), Gower Medical (undergraduate and research level monographs, atlases and journals), Macmillan Education (textbooks for Africa, the Arab World, SE Asia and the Far East), Longman France (ELT materials) and Chambers Harrap (adult dictionaries and reference books).
Tim Horsler started his career with Longman (now part of the Pearson Group) and was posted to Nigeria where he ran a large book distribution warehouse before moving to Ghana to establish a distribution operation there from scratch. He subsequently published educational titles at all levels for Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cameroon and assisted in the development and management of country specific strategic business plans and publishing programmes for companies, branches and agencies throughout Africa. He also established Longman France and managed the Paris-based business for five years, and has subsequently carried out many strategic business reviews and reorganisations (involving short to medium term interim management secondments) for publishing companies in the UK, Poland, Cameroon, Nigeria, Malawi, Pakistan, Jamaica and Trinidad.
His projects in 2008 included work for EfC on a project funded by Unicef in Azerbaijan in support of the development and procurement of a new generation of core textbooks, which involved advising and monitoring the evaluation of textbooks by specialist subject panels. Later in the year, during a two-month assignment in Eritrea, he provided training and consultancy services for the Publishing Division of the Ministry of Education on a British Council managed, EU-funded education reform programme, which also involved work alongside his fellow EfC Associate, John Lovely, on EMIS matters in relation to textbook production and distribution planning needs.
In 2009 Tim went to Burundi to help the Ministry of Education to finalise their draft Bid Documents (Appels d’Offres) for the reprinting and publication of existing and new materials. A key element of his work involved the provision of specialist publishing advice to the World Banks’ local procurement consultant on the wording and inclusion of appropriate clauses covering the technical evaluation of bids and the content and production quality of finished books. He also helped senior Ministry staff to gain an appreciation of the skills and experience publishers need to successfully research and produce quality educational materials. Tim’s final task was to define and propose training workshops to be run for Ministry staff and other interested parties involved in the planning, publishing, production and procurement of textbooks.