About Gaile

I have interests in both the UK and in Spain.

U P Publications concentrates on the publishing of books – www.uppbooks.com – our books are available through all major UK Book Shops and from amazon.co.uk, amazon.com (and through most big online bookstores)

Javea Grapevine Magazine – www.javeagrapevine.com (full colour online magazine 120 pages plus – local news and information for Javea)

see www.gmgpspain.com for more

Specialties: SME Support, Mentoring, Promotion, Networking and Management. Publishing, Graphic Design, (Digital) Photo Restoration, Editorial, Writing, Information research and exchange, Website Development, Photography and applying unlimited enthusiasm to every project undertaken!

Contacting Me

If you wish to write an article for  Javea Grapevine and the new Brands that we are bringing online, are interested in buying or selling advertising space  or want to express an interest in publishing or being a book distributor/reseller, then I will be delighted to hear from you. Please use the Contact Form and leave your details and the nature of your enquiry. Thank you

Additional Info – I write, design, create, am a keen photographer and an even better image manipulator. Oddly all have been useful skills – from advertising and graphic design to creating magazines or websites, managing businesses and advising on Change Management.

In 2020 – I wrote a Murder Mystery novel under the pen name Michaela Orme www.orme.buzz and, during the restrictions imposed by COVID lockdowns, I turned to my love of graphics and design and have produced a series of Challenging Art Colouring and Mandala books under my own name (www.ggp.pics) I have also written a book for Children and post-COVID hope to spend more time on Antique Porcelain research.

Experience

Current

Managing Director – now Owner  – U P Publications

Our primary business is Book Publication. Having been members of the Independent Publishers Guild and The Publishers’ Association we are pleased to have a mixture of books and some excellent authors writing for us. A selection of our most popular books can be seen at http://www.uppbooks.com.

The company started Wising UP! Magazine in 2003 – Over 10,000 Cambridgeshire readers used to read each issue. For a long while, the website had similar content – B2B and B2C articles – aimed at upskilling, career and Business improvement opportunities, help and advice. The www.wising-up.co.uk website has now been revised and is now the review site for our books and authors and where our catalogues and literary magazines will appear over the next few months

Managing Editor/ Owner  –  Grapevine Magazines

Javea Grapevine, Jávea’s oldest English Magazine now averages over 130 pages of local community news and articles in full colour online www.javeagrapevine.com – it includes comprehensive local restaurant guides, language hints and local events and articles and is completely free. It is a pleasure to be part of keeping this popular magazine at the heart of the community, where it has been since it started in the 1980s.

Past

Manager – Marina Alta Business Club SL

Business Networking Club Based in the Marina Alta Region of the North Costa Blanca Spain – supporting English Speaking Businesses in Spain – sponsors the Grapevine magazines. www.mabc.biz

Managing Editor  – Live in Spain Magazine

Founded by Richard Collins – “Live in Spain” Magazine was a full colour online ‘glossy’ magazine –  available on iPad, iPhone and Android Platforms.

Company Manager  –  The Learning Centre Ltd

Responsible to the Board of Directors, my work included strategy, overview, sales, customer service, HR policies, face to face and e-training, company management, regional networking, public speaking, committee work, marketing and associated leaflet/web/graphic design. I was brought into the failing business as a Change Manager. My over-arching achievement was to take the Company through three major accreditations in my first eighteen months (IiP, SFEDI and Guidance Accreditation Board – now MATRIX) and, in the process, to persuade Peterborough City Council to bring the company’s business and its staff into the Council under TUPE.

CDR Co-ordinator (plus Social Services Webmaster)  –  Peterborough City Council

Employed to set up a Voluntary Register of Children With Disabilities in Peterborough – the job involved considerable inter-service co-ordination and the development and maintenance of several Steering Committees. One of my greatest achievements in this post was making such an impact that I was invited to stay on several committees for a further year, in an advisory capacity. Another was being able to work with the Area Child Protection Committee, creating one of the first regional ACPC websites in the UK and through their sponsorship creating a full Directory of Local and National Services, Sports and Leisure and Support groups and mechanisms for families with Children with disabilities. I designed, set up and maintained a 170 page website for Social services and developed various publications

Customer Service Manager – DSG Retail Manager (DSG International plc)

Various posts – I started in Sales and then Business Account Management but, on completing in-house management exams, became Customer Service Manager and managed the Technical and Customer Service departments in various multi-million turnover PC World Superstores. Having worked in Peterborough, Nottingham, Sheffield and Lincoln and also been involved in the delivery of training programmes to staff and customers, I left primarily because I became unhappy with Customer Service Policy changes and trends within the company. Two years after I left, the business was restructured and the separate management of Customer Service and Technical departments within stores was discontinued.

1979 – 1995

With a husband in the RAF and constantly on the move, I ran a variety of small franchises – using and building expertise in Desk Top Publishing (DTP), management, networking and sales. I organised exhibitions, edited small circulation magazines, learned stock control, marketing, public speaking and accounting as well as the various key IT skills and company management skills I used to re-launch my career on return to the UK in 1989. I owned and ran an Antiques Business for over 13 years and in 1992 started a small Desk Top Publishing business specialising in the support of new SMEs. Innovative (and niche filling) it was successful, but ‘of its time’. The cost of the equipment and software required to keep the product ahead of that made by amateur DTP enthusiasts was prohibitive and the opening of a local Computer Superstore in 1994 made it strategically more sound to join and grow with the opposition rather than to fight it!

1974 – 1979

After several years in the Civil Service, having started as a Clerical Officer in the Accounts Department of the Natural Environment Research Council, I left  as an Executive Officer, in London,  for the Department of Environment. After a brief stint in the Royal Air Force, I joined Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, eventually working from their Reading Office as a Relief Office Supervisor – managing various offices across the South of England, to ensure that they continued to operate smoothly while their normal manager was away. As much as I loved the challenges that this job offered, it was  not possible to continue my career there, while my husband pursued his with the RAF.

Liverpool University  –  MBA – SME Business Management  2003 – 2006  (previously a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute)