Hugh Nowell

Hugh Nowell "was instrumental in starting Grosvenor Books, the publishing arm of MRA" (now Initiatives of Change). "They published a broad range of titles from Cooking around the world (which combined recipes with anecdotes) to children's books set in different cultures and The Muslim Mind, which opened western minds to an understanding of Islam. For 25 years he represented Grosvenor Books at the International Book Fair in Frankfurt. He says that one of his most exciting undertakings was launching a publishing operation in Moscow, before the end of the Cold War.

"He retired from Grosvenor Books in 1988, only to find himself led in another unexpected direction. In 1990 he was one of a small group at an MRA conference who heard a senior British publisher, Bill Porter, talk about his concern about values in the media. 'He said that the media needed to find a new sense of responsibility for its impact on society. This echoed the convictions underlying the publishing we had been doing, and I offered to help.' Porter founded the International Communications Forum (ICF), and Nowell became its Joint Secretary. He describes Porter as a 'pied piper of Hamlin', to whose cause hundreds of media professionals all over the world have rallied."