New direction

Callanan has moved from New York, where she spent almost her entire career, to rural Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom to take up her new position.

"I am a New Yorker, but now my family and all our pets have moved. My family and I are passionate equestrians so we have brought our horses over. And we are in this spectacular countryside and loving it. It is very different from New York, for sure."

Publishing is also a new direction for Callanan, who has spent most of her career in the technology sector. She was previously chief executive officer of Quantros, a provider of digital solutions in the healthcare sector.

"Although it is my first publishing role, I have been in the ecosystem of publishing. For the past decade and a half I have been leading transformational organizations, leveraging technology to really pursue new value in new ways."

Callanan, who did bachelor's degrees in both English and fine art before studying finance at New York University, began her career with a Wall Street database company in the 1980s.

Since then she has held a number of key senior-level positions at a number of companies.

She believes it is important for women to hold senior positions in business－as is increasingly the case in China－but she does not think her gender has ever held her back.

"I've never seen any barriers in front of me. I have always pursued things that I was passionate about, so I have never really seen these obstacles. It doesn't mean they don't exist, but I have never focused on or really noticed them. I am well aware that I might be more fortunate than other women," she says.

"I have a 14-year-old daughter and I'm thrilled to be living at a time when we can all pursue our passions."