Jon Bunting
Chief Executive Officer

Jon joined WH Smith News in 1994. He rose through the organisation in a variety of sales and marketing managerial roles before being promoted to the executive management team in 2001. In April 2014, Jon became Managing Director of the Connect News & Media division and, subsequently, Chief Operating Officer in September 2017, a position which spanned wider group business interests held at the time, together with Smiths News. Following his appointment as Interim Chief Executive Officer on 5 November 2019, this appointment was confirmed on 15 June 2020.

Richard Clay
Chief Financial Officer

Richard has extensive experience in senior finance and strategic roles across financial and support services. Prior to joining Smiths News in February 2026, Richard was interim Chief Financial Officer at ZIGUP plc, a leading integrated mobility solutions provider, having joined ZIGUP in May 2018. At ZIGUP, he held a variety of roles, including UK&I Group Finance Director and Head of Group Strategy, FP&A and Investor Relations. Prior to his role at ZIGUP, Richard held several Finance Director and CFO roles at Barclays, in the Business and Corporate Banking divisions. Richard is a qualified accountant and began his career with Deloitte, spending eight years in their Corporate Finance division focussed on strategic change.
Emma Jones
People Director

Emma joined Smiths News in January 2020. Prior to joining the business, Emma worked at Interserve, where she was head of HR Shared Services. Before this, Emma worked at Wincanton in various senior HR roles covering operations support, leadership development, system implementation and engagement. Other career highlights include roles with OCS, ICI and Veolia.

Emily McMinn
Director of Strategy and Change

Emily joined Smiths News in 2017 as Head of Finance Business Partnering before being appointed Business Planning Director, and then Director of Strategy and Change in 2021. As Director of Strategy and Change, Emily is responsible for all business planning activity including financial forecasting, budgeting and long range planning and partnering the business on all financial matters.

Marcus Cotes
Technology Director

Marcus joined Smiths News in 2020 as Technology Director. During his career, he has held senior technology roles within global organisations such as Black+Decker, Vodafone and Pearson, and was Chief Information Officer, Global Business Platforms at Dentsu International. These positions have all involved large, complex global transformation programmes covering finance, HR, supply chain and procurement operations. Marcus previously worked for Smith News as IT Director from 2012 to 2014. His current role is to ensure that the company’s technology is not only stable and secure, but also fit for the future.
Simon Gage
Commercial Director

Simon joined Smiths News in 1986 as a management trainee, and has subsequently held a wide variety of roles in the company. Following the demerger in 2006, Simon was made Magazine Sales Director of Smiths News in 2008 and then in 2012, Simon became Sales Director. In 2015, Simon was appointed Publisher and Retailer Services Director and Commercial Director in 2020. He’s responsible for the service offer to our existing clients and managing the trading relationships, as well as overseeing our InStore Field Marketing business.

Lucy Robertson
Operations Director

With a strong background in engineering and operations management, Lucy has enjoyed a career in various roles across the industrial, petrochemical and retail sectors. She has director level experience managing teams in warehousing, transport and business development, and comes with a proven track record of delivering results with the right approach to people and values in senior operations roles at Argos and Amazon. More recently, Lucy spent two years with Yodel in a transformational role as Director of Sort and Transport, and latterly with McKesson as Vice President Operations, in a role that involved maintaining and improving the pharmaceutical distribution network.

Stuart Marriner
Company Secretary and General Counsel

Stuart joined Smiths News in 2008. Prior to taking up the role of Company Secretary & General Counsel, Stuart worked as a corporate finance solicitor. As a specialist in commercial and corporate law, Stuart is responsible for managing corporate governance, delivering regulatory compliance and leading the Company Secretarial and Legal functions across the company.

Adam Wylie
Managing Director of Recycle

Adam Wylie joined Smiths News in July 2025 as Managing Director of Recycle, bringing extensive expertise from the environmental sector. He previously held senior Director and executive roles at Veolia, where he led initiatives across commercial strategy, operations, and customer experience. Adam is responsible for leading and growing the Recycle business, developing scalable solutions, nurturing key customer relationships, and defining the strategic roadmap.