Since becoming a publisher in 1972, Richard Charkin has held many senior posts at major publishing houses, including Oxford University Press, Reed Elsevier, Current Science Group, Macmillan, and Bloomsbury Publishing. He has held non-executive directorships at IOP Publishing and Liverpool University Press. He is a former President of The Book Society, the International Publishers Association and the UK Publishers Association. He is a non-executive director of the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Chair of Thames & Hudson Ltd., non- executive director of Bloomsbury China, as well as advising nkoda.com, Kitaboo, shimmr.ai, Firefinch Publishing, and running Mensch Publishing. He lectures on the publishing courses at London College of Communications, City University, Oxford Brookes University, and University College London