Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, is pleased to announce the appointment of Laura Hassink as the new Managing Director for STM Journals, succeeding Philippe Terheggen, who has retired at the end of 2021 after a distinguished 30-year career at Elsevier. Laura will be responsible for Elsevier’s portfolio of 2,650 journals managed by more than 24,000 editors, who collectively publish more than 560,000 research articles a year.
Laura is currently Elsevier’s Senior Vice President of Publishing Transformation, overseeing all aspects of operational support for its journals, improving, and innovating the publication experience for authors, peer reviewers and editors. Laura has also been instrumental in accelerating Elsevier’s substantial progress in open access publishing, with the company now offering more than 600 gold open access journals, as well as offering open access publishing options across all its portfolios.
Before her current role, Laura served as SVP Product Management for ScienceDirect and Journal Branded Solutions, responsible for defining the strategy and product roadmap to improve customers’ reading experience and visibility of the journals Elsevier publishes. During her 24 years with Elsevier, she also served as SVP Physical Sciences in STM Journals and held positions in Strategy, Business Development and Journal Services.
Since 2015, Laura has been active as a board member of the Dutch Publishers Association, Mediafederatie and Chair of the Media Voor Vak en Wetenschap (MVW), and serves as Chair of the Open Science Forum. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Vrije Universiteit, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Nyenrode Business Universiteit.
Elsevier’s CEO, Kumsal Bayazit, commented on the appointment: “Laura has a genuine passion for understanding the needs of the research communities we serve and maintaining the highest quality and integrity standards in scholarly communications. She is also the perfect leader to continue to build on Elsevier’s 140-year heritage as the global leader in scientific publishing, helping to ensure quality research contributes to societal progress.”