Export Special Interest Group

For suppliers

Special interest and working groups

Export Special Interest Group members are exporters of, or looking to start exporting, educational products around the world.

The group represents suppliers and/or manufacturers from all sectors of the education market, including books, consumables, furniture, technology, ICT hardware and EdTech to the education market.

The UK education system is in high demand internationally and the increasing use of British educational products and services across the globe demonstrates the expertise of BESA members.

Members work with major contractors abroad along with local suppliers.

Upcoming meeting dates:

Thursday 13 February 2025, 11am-1pm
Thursday 8 May 2025, 11am-1pm
Tuesday 16 September 2025, 11am-1pm

Benefits of joining the Export Special Interest Group:

As a member of the BESA Export Special Interest Group, you are recognised across the globe for the high quality of your products and services and your excellent customer service, following our Code of Practice.

Chair: Sven Huber

Founder and CEO, Fiction Express Education Ltd

Sven Huber, born in 1970 in Frankfurt/Main (Germany), is an international business leader, entrepreneur and founder. His company, Fiction Express, has developed an award-winning literacy resource designed to simultaneously improve all four levels of literacy skills: reading, grammar, speaking & listening, and writing. Through his vision and leadership, Fiction Express has established a new category of literacy resources, called “Co-creative reading”, improving poor reading habits by getting children excited about reading through the power of a deeply engaging experience of co-creation between students and authors.

Sven shares his thinking on www.svenhuber.education and tweets as @svenhuber.

A CEO for 15 years, Sven has an uncompromisingly positive, inspiring and participative leadership style, combined with a clear strategic vision, creativity, analysis and perseverance.

After graduating as a chemical engineer from Universität Karlsruhe (TH) in Germany, he started his career in the Munich office of global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, creating value for industry-leading clients across numerous sectors including banking, automotive, transportation and postal services.

In 1999, Sven moved to Barcelona (Spain) to study for his MBA at IESE Business School. During an exchange semester in 2000 at Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, he was inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit characterising Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. This initial spark materialised a decade later when he decided to leave his well-paid job at a multinational company to become a social entrepreneur, dedicating his life to Education.

After finishing his MBA, he joined the German media company Bertelsmann, Europe’s largest media business, working in different leadership positions both in the headquarters as well as in subsidiaries of Penguin Random House and DirectGroup in Germany, the US, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. In 2005, Sven was appointed CEO of Librerías Bertrand, a book retail start-up. During his ten years at Bertelsmann, he acquired a deep understanding and knowledge of the publishing industry.

In 2011, a passionate reader and father of two young children, Sven founded Boolino, an initiative to foster children’s learning ability by improving their reading habits and reading comprehension skills. After a four-year quest of searching for a scalable business model for his widely admired idea, and at the brink of closing Boolino, a business that had shown significant growth but lacked profitability, Sven convinced the Board of Directors to embrace the opportunity that digitalisation would bring to the publishing industry.

To kick-start a new digital business model, Boolino acquired the assets of UK-based company Fiction Express, which was founded in 2012 by independent publisher Paul Humphrey. Fiction Express had successfully piloted a unique idea to motivate UK primary school students to read, making them part of the creative book-writing process by guiding professional authors through weekly voting on the plot. After the acquisition in 2016, Sven, together with his co-founder and business partner Cristina Puig and their team, relaunched Fiction Express in 2017 with a new technology platform, introducing numerous new features. Fiction Express has become one of the most awarded global EdTech products in recent years, including the Education Resources Award 2019, the Teach Primary Award 2019, the Education Investor Award 2019 and the Bett Award 2020, considered the “Oscar” of Education. Today, hundreds of thousands of students in almost 50 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America use Fiction Express.

In response to the severe negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Education sector, in June 2020 Sven co-founded RE.SCHOOL, a collaborative initiative that aimed to help schools and teachers face the “new normal” ahead of school openings in September 2020. After the initial success (a two-day conference with over 4,000 participants held on June 24/25) and the launch RE.SCHOOL IdeaLab where teachers and school leaders can share best practices, Sven is now working with his team to envisage the school of the future. The leading question is how technology can help create better and more inclusive education systems that respond to the educational needs of the 21st century.

After living through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship during the past decade – including the 2008-12 global financial crisis and 2020 COVID-19 pandemic – today, Sven Huber is one of the leading thought leaders in EdTech in Europe. He regularly speaks at international conferences and business schools to share his passion for Education and social entrepreneurship.

Currently, he lives in Barcelona (Spain), enjoying the Mediterranean lifestyle, the sea, the close-by Pyrenees and Leo Messi’s genius at Camp Nou (who knows for how long). While Education is his passion, his true love is his two children Lucas and Claudia, and his life partner Rocío.

How Export Special Interest Group companies export:

Who are the Export Special Interest Group members?

Joining the Group

How do I join the Export Special Interest Group?

Joining the Export Special Interest Group is free and open to BESA members only.

Click ‘Apply to join’ and send us your application letter stating that you want to join the group, confirming that your primary activity is in the UK education market. Also, that you are happy to share ideas with the rest of the Export Group and are committed to developing and taking the Group forward and finally that you are committed to a level playing field in the market. In addition you need to meet the Group’s Terms of Reference which are available on the website.

Your application will then be presented to the group for approval.

Meetings take place three times a year online, and you are expected to attend each meeting.

Example application letter

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to formally apply to join the Export Special Interest Group.
Paragraph confirming that

i) Your are actively exporting or looking to begin exporting within the education market

ii) You are happy to share ideas with the rest of the Export Special Interest Group

iii) Committed to developing and taking the Group forward

iv) Committed to a level playing field in the market

v) You can meet the Group’s Terms of Reference which are available on the website.

Yours sincerely,

Terms of Reference

1. Members of the Group must be full or associate members of BESA and UK based organisations whose primary activities are the publishing of software for education, and the manufacture or distribution of hardware and peripherals to the UK education market.

2. The Group is known as the ‘Export Special Interest Group’ (EXPORT SIG) of BESA.

3. The Group should have two or three meetings a year, unless the Group wants more.

4. Any member of BESA may make an application to the BESA secretariat to join the Group.

5. The Chair of the Group (or a representative nominated by the Group from amongst its members) will be co-opted to membership of the Executive Council of BESA. The Chair of BESA is, ex officio, a member of the Group and is entitled to attend its meetings.

6. The Group is entitled to call meetings which will be serviced by the BESA secretariat. Any abnormal costs may have to be charged, as decided by the Executive Council.

7. Member companies need to attend a minimum of two meeting per year. If the minimum requirement is not met, the company may be asked to leave the Group and will have to reapply for membership.

8. When attending a meeting, members need to be ready to contribute to all areas of meeting unless not relevant.

9. When attending a meeting, members need to be ready to interact to the polls, Q&A’s and have their camera turned on.

10. When attending a meeting, members need to ensure that they are in a suitable location without distractions.

11. Copies of the minutes of the proceedings of the Group will be submitted to the Executive Council.

12. In the event of the Group deciding to undertake a course of action leading to or becoming liable to any costs or expenditure over and above the provision expressed in paragraph 5) above, or as determined by the Executive Council, such expenditure shall be borne by members of the Group.

13. In the event of the Group wishing BESA to undertake a course of action on its behalf such proposed action shall first be approved by the Executive Council.

14. A Chair and Vice-Chair shall be elected each year at the Group’s first meeting following the BESA Annual General Meeting. The Chair and Vice-Chair shall be serve for one year, subject to re-election for a second year, two years being the maximum period of continuous service in one office. The Chair and Vice-Chair shall be from separate member companies.

15. The Chairman of the Group has the responsibility of organising a guest for each meeting, this responsibility is not for members of the group.

16. These provisions will come into effect immediately after approval by the Executive Council which must also approve any future proposals for change.

17. Based on one vote per member, decisions taken at a Group meeting will be simple majority with the Chair having a casting vote.

18. While the Group maintains its own bank account it will elect a Treasurer each year at the Group’s first meeting following the BESA AGM. The purpose of the account is to fund agreed Group activities including the reasonable expenses of officers of the Group as agreed from time to time by the Group. A financial statement will be presented by the Treasurer at each Group meeting. Financial liability may not by incurred which exceeds the assets of the account.

19. Export Special Interest Group member individual responsibilities include:

constructively challenging and contributing to the development of the group’s common goals and structures; and

ensuring the group acts in the best interests of the association and other stakeholders and is fully accountable for the services provided.

20. The chair will hold the DG (as company secretary) to account in ensuring that Export members are provided with accurate and clear information, as well as facilitating effective contributions from council members to the secretariat.

21. Members of the group consent to data sharing between BESA and the Chair/Vice-Chair of the group in line with BESA’s Privacy Policy.

Join the community

Whether you’re joining us as a Full Member or subscribing to the Launchpad programme, your business will need to meet our membership criteria and sign up to our Code of Practice. Take the next step and see what is involved in this commitment.

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