ALLAN AMSEL has spent most of his career in publishing management and specifically in the process of assessing, nurturing and realizing creative publishing ideas in the areas of leisure, culture, learning, cookery and magazine products. After evaluating projects on the Hamlyn Group (now Hamlyn Octopus Group) production and editorial team, he joined and subsequently ran their subsidiary production and publishing operation in Hong Kong. In 1985 he formed his own company to develop travel publishing ideas and then branched out to produce new travel titles, cookery books, books on Chinese culture and medicine and a range of learning aids for children. As a producer and packager of such products he marketed these around the world entering into long-term relationships with prominent international publishers, such as Kodansha (Japan), Hunter Publishing and Shambhala Publications (United States), and Universal Press Pty (Australia). As a regular exhibitor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Allan Amsel negotiated foreign language co-publishing arrangements for his books with publishers in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Russia and Japan. The Traveler’s Companion series of illustrated international travel guides, first developed by Allan Amsel 1986, has been acclaimed, with several titles winning prestigious awards including winner and runner up of the 2002 Ben Franklin award and runner up as “Best Guidebook” (Thomas Cook/Travelex) in 2000. While presently retired he advises on publishing projects on a freelance basis.