Sara Miller McCune to receive The London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award 2018

The London Book Fair will present the LBF Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 to Sara Miller McCune, Founder and Executive Chairman of SAGE Publishing.

Sara Miller McCune is a visionary publisher, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. She oversaw the growth of SAGE from a start-up to one of the largest independent publishing companies in the world. For over 50 years, she has led the publishing industry in business, through her tireless support for social science research and through her passion for philanthropy.

She founded SAGE in 1965, aged just 24, and oversaw its phenomenal growth, founding major publishing offices in UK (1971), India (1981) and Singapore (2006). Guided by an entrepreneurial spirit and an unwavering dedication to academia, Ms. McCune has made it her life’s work to challenge and break down borders within publishing and society. She has been at the forefront of numerous publishing innovations from championing of urban studies, media studies, black studies, and family violence (to name only a few examples). She also supported new research methods such as evaluation research and new statistical techniques. Today, Ms. McCune remains actively involved in the company’s expansion and development, and still serves as the executive chairman.

The LBF Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing will be presented at the International Excellence Awards, an invitation-only event on Tuesday 10 April 2018, 6.30pm in The Conference Centre, Olympia, London.

Sara Miller McCune will also speak at The London Book Fair’s Research and Scholarly Publishing Forum on Wednesday 11 April 2018.

Sara Miller McCune, SAGE Founder and Executive Chairman:

“I am extraordinarily honored to be receiving this award and grateful to The London Book Fair for recognizing the critical work that an independent academic publisher can achieve when its commitment to a noble mission is unwavering. I am a passionate supporter of what I call the four justices – economic, educational, environmental, and social – on an international scale, and I view the work of SAGE Publishing as pivotal to their advancement as we build bridges from ideas to usable knowledge. I receive this award as acknowledgment of my pledge to this work and an endorsement to continue to improve the world of scholarship and education for the long-term future.”

Dame Lynne Brindley, Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, said:

“Sara’s achievements are extraordinary in publishing and philanthropy. She is a role model for women in business and for young female entrepreneurs. We admire the company she founded and its success and endorse its enduring values, but most of all, for those many people, including myself, who are fortunate enough to count her as a friend, we hold her dear and congratulate her on this richly deserved Lifetime Achievement Award”.

Stephen Barr, President, SAGE International

“I am delighted that The London Book Fair has recognised Sara Miller McCune with the LBF Lifetime Achievement Award. Sara is a visionary and passionate publisher. Publishing for Sara has never just been a question of making money; she has always believed in the power of publishing to disseminate knowledge, to shape minds and to contribute to building a better world through improved public policy based on research and evidence.

She set up SAGE to express and fulfil that vision, built it through its early years with her late husband George McCune, and has overseen its development into one of the world’s major academic and educational publishers. Her creative engagement with the advancement of knowledge is recognized by authors and researchers worldwide, and is most recently embodied in projects such as the magazine and website Pacific Standard which communicates new academic research to a wider public. Beyond publishing, Sara’s commitment to the cause of social justice has been expressed through a wide range of philanthropic projects around the world. She fully deserves the recognition of the international publishing community for her achievements.”

Jacks Thomas, Director, The London Book Fair said:

“Sara Miller McCune is a pioneer and an inspiration to those of us – perhaps especially women - in publishing. Her leadership and vision has helped SAGE grow, evolve and prosper over five decades, which is a monumental achievement. She has been at the forefront of so many changes in the sector; she is surely one of the greatest and most enduring publishing visionaries and we are delighted to recognise her at The London Book Fair.”

The London Book Fair’s Advisory Board voted for Sara Miller McCune from a shortlist of international publishing figures.

Ms. McCune is a dedicated philanthropist and co-founder and president of the McCune Foundation. The foundation supports productive change through building social capital in two counties on California’s Central Coast. In 2007, Ms. McCune founded the Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy, which launched the award-winning magazine Pacific Standard. In 2017, the magazine and the center’s mission were transferred to the newly launched Social Justice Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission of informing and educating the public with content based on scientific research and supported by SAGE Publishing.

In 2012, Ms. McCune received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Queens College, City University of New York In 2014, she was awarded an honorary fellowship from Cardiff University and an honorary doctorate from Bath University and in 2016, Ms. McCune received honorary degrees from CSU Channel Islands and Sussex University. Ms. McCune is also an Honorary Fellow of the prestigious Pembroke College of Oxford University.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognises an individual who has made a truly significant mark in the sphere of global publishing. It is open to publishers, agents, editors, scouts and anyone else involved in international publishing from any country in the world. Last year the award was presented to Luiz Schwartz, Companhia das Letras. Previous recipients include Deborah Rogers of Rogers, Coleridge & White, Sonny Mehta of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Lord Weidenfeld, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, Christopher MacLehose, now of MacLehose Press, John Lyon of Little, Brown (posthumously), Lynette Owen of Pearson Education, Peter Mayer of The Overlook Press/ Duckworth Publishers, Drenka Willen, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Antoine Gallimard, Éditions Gallimard, Jorge Herralde of Editorial Anagrama and Michael Krüger of Hanser Verlag and Baroness Gail Rebuck, Penguin Random House.