Founder and public face of the company. An outdoor enthusiast with over twenty years' publishing experience, he’s the author of Vertebrate’s best-selling Peak District Mountain Bikingand White Peak Mountain Bikingguides. A keen runner, climber and mountain biker, he spent much of his twenties touring the world as a ‘professional’ (his words) climber and has now settled down, with the dream of one day not being the slowest runner in the company.   

A senior member of the team, Stephen is a lifelong fan of all things adventure. A keen fell & trail runner, cyclist and general outdoor enthusiast. Stephen's long and successful business career brings organisation and expertise to our enterprise; while his love of getting people outdoors is forever an inspiration for the great books we publish. The company's fastest runner (his words).

Our Publishing Director, John is ultimately responsible for developing VP into one of the leading publishers of outdoor books in the UK. Under his guidance, our titles have picked up numerous awards – including the prestigious Boardman Tasker Prize, the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Book Festival and the TGO Book of the Year award. John is a keen rock climber and mountain biker and is author of the award-winning Peak District Bouldering.

Jo is Vertebrate's finance director, she has had a very accomplished career in finance and senior management and joins us as a much needed grown up. Very rarely seen on the running strategy away days.

Kirsty is our Commissioning Editor. Born and raised in the Peak District she then worked for various publishers down south for 20 years, before realising the error of her ways and moving back even further north to Cumbria. A keen fell and trail runner, when not working she is usually out using her poor navigation skills to recce a route, or mountain biking in Grizedale Forest with her canine companion, Gilbert.

Head of Production, Jane manages our expert design and editorial team. After qualifying in art, design and photography in her native South Africa, she honed her skills in several thriving design studios before moving to the UK. As well as the distinctive twang she brings to the team’s cocktail of dialects, she is motivated and enthusiastic with a fine attention to detail and an eye for a catchy cover. She’s responsible for the output of our award-winning books, ebooks and print-on-demand for Vertebrate Publishing. Jane is married with a son, you might spot her doing her best to be athletic pounding the pavements in Sheffield's suburbia.

Our Head of Marketing, Lorna is a publishing Masters graduate, and short listed young publisher of the year. She is responsible for publicity of our growing list. Originally from the sunny(ish) seaside town of Southport, out of the office, she can often be found getting lost, exploring the many mountainous streets around her new home of Sheffield, looking for foxes or travelling the world in search of pandas.

Sophie is our business manager looking after the admin and our social media output. She lives in the heart of the Peak District with her super-keen MTB family and loves nothing more than being in the Scottish highlands, either climbing munros or riding her bike. She owns many hats.

Jess joined the team as an Editor. An English Literature graduate, she is one of the core editorial team, working on many of our highest selling titles. She's also the best baker, which is important in publishing.  

Rae has been working in marketing for eight years at a local secondary school and she’s now relishing the swap from textbooks to adventure books. She describes her childhood as 'being brought up on Stanage' and is trying to do the same for her own young daughters.

Helen joined Vertebrate in 2019 as our Guidebooks Editor. She has brought with her fifteen-plus years of publishing experience to the outdoor market. A Sheffield native and a keen walker and runner, at weekends you’ll usually find her out and about enjoying the green spaces in Sheffield and the Peak District with her family. 

Michaela joined the team in January 2022 as our assistant accountant.  She loves nature and the outdoors, is a gardening enthusiast and works in the beautiful grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham, as a gardening volunteer.

Kathy is our guidebook researcher, and spends all her days looking at maps, collecting photos and writing directions, then after work she looks at maps, takes photos and reads directions as she makes her way from one point of interest to another on some far flung ultra trail.

Emma joined the team in April 2019 as a Production Editor. Originally from Staffordshire, she worked in ELT (English Language Teaching) publishing in Oxford for nearly eight years before being lured up north by the delights of Vertebrate. She loves editing and walking – although not necessarily at the same time – and is powered by tea.

Having worked for the publishing arm of a leading miniature wargame company for over a decade, Rosie jumped at the chance to be a senior graphic designer at Vertebrate where she could combine books with her love of all things outdoor adventure. At weekends she is either to be found mountain biking in the Peak District with her husband or on hiking adventures with her trusty canine sidekick, Bella. (Really just happy doing anything outdoors that doesn’t involve housework, shopping or other boring grown up stuff!)

Armed with an MA in publishing, Becky is our specialist digital marketing executive  running our Facebook group, Bookshop.org liaison, producing our enews, and managing content on the website and associated marketing tasks. She’s been an avid walker all her life, climbing many of the Lake District’s highest mountains, including Scafell Pike, Helvellyn, Fairfield, Blencathra and Old Man of Coniston. Her longer hikes include the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Shona is our digital products manager, she singlehandedly produces our ebooks, audio and print on demand titles. Working remotely in binary code we were all much relieved to finally meet her recently at a company get together, and dismiss the rumours she was actually a real person and not an AI publisher.

Col is our customer service hero, if you get a book it's Col, he did that, if you didn't, send him an email and he will sort it out. One of the many members of the team to run faster and further than Jon.