We say goodbye and thank you to David Buirski
On April 30, we said a fond farewell to consultant editor, David Buirski, who is retiring from his role after working on our magazines and websites for exactly one-third of a century.
Mr Buirski studied law in his native city, Cape Town, before pivoting into public relations work. This change of career changed his life. He moved to London, met his wife, Lyn, and stayed.
His work included in-depth involvement in communications projects for prominent fashion brands and the fashion industry’s representative bodies in the UK. This, in turn, brought him into contact with World Leather. When the magazine needed a new editor in March 1993, the knowledgeable and well connected Mr Buirski was the ideal choice.
A trip to Hong Kong for that year’s APLF exhibition followed immediately and he began building strong connections to influential figures in the global leather industry right away. With typical modesty, he attributes a large share of his early success to the group of expert contributors World Leather had at the time: Walter Landmann, Richard Daniels and Hubert Wachsmann.
As parent company World Trades Publishing expanded its number of titles, David Buirski’s role diversified too, ending with his becoming consultant editor across the company. Chief executive, Simon Yarwood, said: “We will all miss David and wish him a very happy retirement. His ever-sharp eye, patience, generous advice and gentle encouragement have been an unshakeable support to me and to our entire team.”
