Nicholas Coleridge

Nicholas Coleridge
Nicholas Coleridge
Born	Nicholas David Coleridge (1957-03-04) 4 March 1957
Nationality	England
Education	Eton College Trinity College, Cambridge
Occupation	President of Condé Nast International[1]

Nicholas David Coleridge CBE (born 4 March 1957) is President of Condé Nast International, the division of Condé Nast which publishes more than 100 magazines and 80 branded websites in 24 markets globally.^[2]

He is Chairman of the Victoria & Albert Museum, having been a Trustee from 2012-2015.^{[3] [4]} He is also Chairman of HRH The Prince of Wales' Campaign for Wool^[5] (Deputy Chairman 2009–2013). He has also been Chairman of the Gilbert Collection since 2015.

Since 1991, Coleridge has also been Managing Director of Condé Nast in Britain, the magazine publishing house that includes Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, GQ, The World of Interiors, House & Garden, Condé Nast Traveller, Tatler, Brides, Wired", "Love, and Ars Technica as well as Condé Nast Johansens and the Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design.

Life and career

Coleridge was born in London, the son of David Coleridge, who was Chairman of Lloyd's of London in the late 1980s, and descended from a brother of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge,^[6] and . He is the eldest of three brothers, and educated at Eton College^[7] and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied Theology and History of Art; however, due to a back injury, he was not able to sit his Finals.^[8] As an Eton schoolboy, he won the Jeremy Thorpe Cup for debating with his school friend Craig Brown, though the trophy was later re-named when Thorpe's reputation fell under a shadow.

He has written twelve books,^[9] both fiction and non-fiction, based largely upon either his professional life (The Fashion Conspiracy, Paper Tigers, With Friends Like These) or social novels (A Much Married Man, Godchildren, Deadly Sins, The Adventuress). The Fashion Conspiracy was briefly the Number One bestseller, hardback non-fiction (The Times, March 4th 1988).

He has been Chairman of the PPA – the magazine publishers' association – and Chairman of the British Fashion Council. He was founding Chairman of Fashion Rocks, the fashion and rock music extravaganza, which raised more than £3 million for the Prince's Trust charity. He was on the Advisory Board for the Concert for Diana, Wembley Stadium 2007. He has been a member of the Council of the Royal College of Art, and a member of the Trading Board of the Prince's Trust. He was a Director of PressBof,^[10] the parent organisation of the Press Complaints Commission, 2007-2014. He is an Ambassador for the Landmark Trust, and a Patron of the Elephant Family.

While on assignment making a television documentary about Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka in 1984, he was arrested and jailed for ten days in Welikada prison, Colombo, where he embarked upon writing a collection of short stories, 'How I Met My Wife'.

As a journalist, he has been an irregular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator and the Financial Times. In 1976, between school and university, he was a cub reporter on the Falmouth Packet newspaper in Cornwall. From 1979 -82 he was Associate Editor of the Tatler, working for then editor Tina Brown; from 1982 – 85 he was a columnist at the Evening Standard; 1986–89 he was editor of Harpers & Queen magazine, a Hearst title, before joining Condé Nast, initially as Editorial Director of the British Company.

He was described by Campaign magazine in 2012 as “magazines' most compelling advocate for almost two decades”.^[11]

Personal life

He is married to Georgia Metcalfe and has four children, Alexander, Freddie, Sophie and Tommy. They live in Chelsea, London, and in Worcestershire. The December 2007 issue of Conde Nast's World of Interiors magazine contains a feature on his country house, the 1709 Wolverton Hall in Worcestershire.

He has seven godchildren, and his novel Godchildren was dedicated to them. Two of the godchildren, Cara Delevingne and Edie Campbell, are now well known British models.^[12]

Awards

He was awarded the 1982 prize for British Press Awards Young Journalist of the Year when he was a columnist at the Evening Standard, and the Mark Boxer Lifetime Achievement Award for magazine journalism by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2001. In 2013, he was awarded the Marcus Morris Lifetime Achievement Award for publishing by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA).

Coleridge was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.^[13]

References