Industry News

Elsevier, the information analytics business specializing in science and health, today announced Kumsal Bayazit has been appointed Chief Executive Officer effective February 15, 2019.

Bayazit has worked at RELX Group, Elsevier’s parent company, since 2004. She started her career at Legal and Risk & Business Analytics, where she held a number of senior strategy and operational roles. In 2012, she was appointed Chief Strategy Officer of RELX Group, as well as chair of the company’s Chief Technology Officers’ Forum, formed to foster a strategic acceleration into an increasingly data-driven business focused on analytics and decision tools. For the past three years, she has been the Regional President for Europe, Middle East and Africa at RELX Group’s exhibitions business. Prior to joining RELX Group, Bayazit worked at Bain & Company in the US, South Africa and Australia. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.

Bayazit replaces Ron Mobed who, after seven years as Elsevier’s Chief Executive Officer, has decided to retire. Mobed joined Elsevier in 2011 and became Chief Executive in 2012. He will support his successor during the transition, providing counsel and advice until June. Youngsuk (YS) Chi will remain Chairman of Elsevier.

Founder and CEO, Georgios Papadopoulos, has assumed the new role of Chairman, and Marty Picco, Atypon’s Senior Vice President of Product, has been promoted to the new role of General Manager.

This leadership transition will allow Mr. Papadopoulos to turn his attention from the company’s day-to-day operations to focus full-time on new technology initiatives and strategic ventures.

“Atypon has always been committed to applying our deep technical resources and creative minds to advance scholarly research communication,” said Mr. Papadopoulos. “I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to focus more closely on new innovations that help enable the creation and dissemination of knowledge through technology.”

As General Manager, Mr. Picco will be responsible for the company’s operations and management. He joined Atypon in 2010 and has served as Atypon’s Senior Vice President of Product for the last five years.

“It’s an honor to take the helm of a company with such talented colleagues, world class technology, and prestigious clients,” said Marty Picco, Atypon’s new General Manager, “particularly at a time of such significant industry transformation. I’m excited to focus on strengthening our organization and technology platform to help scholarly publishers not only navigate today’s business uncertainties but to succeed long-term.”

Bart Murphy, an innovative technology leader with significant application development and infrastructure management experience, has been named Chief Technology and Information Officer of OCLC.

Murphy’s technology experience spans a diverse set of organizations and industries. He most recently was the Chief Technology Officer of PriorAuthNow, a technology organization that enables streamlining of healthcare access through prior authorization automation. Before joining PriorAuthNow, he was the Chief Information and Technology Officer at York Risk Services Group.

The depth of Murphy’s technology experience in software development, infrastructure, data management, security, portfolio and agile management makes him an ideal technology leader for OCLC. That technology leadership earned Murphy a spot among IDG’s Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders, which recognizes exceptional technology leadership and innovative approaches to business challenges.

“Bart is a skilled technology leader with experience leading large technology teams,” said Skip Prichard, OCLC President and CEO. “His knowledge of application development, architecture and infrastructure will help us continue to deliver innovative technologies libraries need to serve their users.”

OCLC is a leading nonprofit global technology organization headquartered in Dublin, Ohio. OCLC provides shared technology services, original research and community programs to libraries worldwide. OCLC and its member libraries worldwide cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the most comprehensive global network of data about library collections and services.

“I’m thrilled to be part of the highly respected team at OCLC,” said Murphy. “It is an organization I have long admired for its reputation, talent and purpose. I look forward to continuing the great work of OCLC.”

Murphy will oversee OCLC’s global engineering centers. He will be based in the Dublin, Ohio, headquarters.

Medscape, the leading source of clinical news, health information, and point-of-care tools for healthcare professionals, today announced that Ivan Oransky, MD, a recognized leader in medical journalism, has joined the organization as Vice President, Editorial.

“Ivan is an established and experienced leader in medical journalism, and we are pleased to welcome him to Medscape,” said Jo-Ann Strangis, Senior Vice President, Editorial and Audience Engagement, Medscape. “His commitment to journalistic quality and integrity fits perfectly with Medscape’s mission to provide physicians and healthcare professionals with rigorous content that is compelling and relevant to their practice.”

Dr. Oransky recently held senior editorial positions at MedPage Today and Reuters Health. Additionally, he was in editorial roles at Scientific American, The Scientist and Praxis Post and co-founded Retraction Watch, which reports on scientific retractions, fraud and related issues. Dr. Oransky serves as President of the Association of Health Care Journalists and is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

He earned his medical degree from New York University, completed his internship in psychiatry at Yale University, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Medscape’s world-class brand,” said Dr. Oransky. “I have devoted my career to furthering the highest standards in health and science journalism, and I look forward to working with one of the best editorial teams in medical publishing to further our shared commitment.”

WebMD Health Corp., an Internet Brands company, today announced that Steven Zatz, M.D., is joining WebMD’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Bob Brisco, the CEO of Internet Brands, will serve as CEO of WebMD, while remaining in his current role with the parent company.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Zatz stay involved at WebMD, following his nearly two decades of building the business into the powerhouse that it has become,” said Mr. Brisco.

“Having decided to step back from day-to-day involvement, I’m delighted as a member of the WebMD Board to be able to work with Bob and the talented WebMD senior leadership team focusing on the strategic growth of the company,” said Dr. Zatz.

Dr. Zatz was appointed CEO of WebMD in September 2016, having served the company in senior positions for more than 19 years.  Under his leadership, Medscape has become the leading source of online information for physicians and other health professionals, as well as the largest online source of continuing medical education.  Similarly, under Dr. Zatz’s leadership, WebMD has continued to be the leading online consumer destination for health information while launching new platforms and services that enable consumers to take specific actions to address their health care needs.  Additionally, WebMD Health Serviceshas continued to expand and enhance its customizable health and wellness solutions for employers and health plans.

“Steve’s vision and leadership have built WebMD and Medscape into iconic healthcare brands,” said Mr. Brisco. “His depth of experience will be extremely valuable as we expand our services, platforms and digital innovations and continue to drive growth, engagement and value to our customers.”

Mr. Brisco has been CEO, President, and Director of Internet Brands since 1999. Under his leadership, Internet Brands has grown from a start-up to serve more than 100,000 clients, engage more than 250 million unique visitors per month, and employ more than 5,000 employees. Prior to Internet Brands, Mr. Brisco was president of Universal Studios Hollywood and CityWalk, one of the largest entertainment destinations in the world, hosting more than 10 million visitors per year.

Elsevier, the global information analytics business specializing in science and health, has named Christopher Larkin to the Chief Technology Officer position overseeing its Health Markets.

Larkin comes to Elsevier from GE, where he was Vice President for GE Digital’s Predix Advanced Analytics and Data Products. Prior to that, Larkin was CTO for GE Healthcare, where he led teams working on precision and regenerative medicine solutions in the healthcare and life sciences marketplace through predictive analytics, machine learning, image analytics, and big data for genetic and oncology applications.

“The acceleration of personalized medicine will depend on our ability to rapidly transform scientific content into actionable insight,” Larkin said. “The delivery of insight is how our healthcare provider community will maximize patient outcomes. I believe Elsevier is positioned for leadership in this transformation and am truly excited to join the team.”

Elsevier’s Health Markets includes Clinical Solutions and Education. The Clinical Solutions group provides reference and workflow solutions for physicians and other medical professionals, from clinical decision support and patient engagement to competency management and academic education. The Education group provides institutions, educators and students with content and innovative teaching, and learning technology that delivers data and analytics for improving student and program outcomes.

“Our solutions for clinicians and medical researchers increasingly are driven by AI technologies, and we’re bringing together a talented team to help us develop and deliver these solutions to the market,” said Dan Olley, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Elsevier, to whom Larkin will report. “Chris brings a wealth of business experience and deep technology knowledge to Health Markets. We’re pleased to welcome Chris to our growing team.”

Larkin has an MS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He will be based in Elsevier’s Philadelphia office.

Ingenta, a leading provider of solutions to simplify, manage, promote and deliver publishers’ business, has announced the permanent appointment of Scott Winner to the position of CEO.

Scott Winner, who has been acting CEO since May 2018, and who was previously COO at the company, replaces David Montgomery.

Winner joined Ingenta in 2015 and as COO he was responsible for transforming how Ingenta both creates and delivers new products and innovations to customers.

Scott brings over 25 years of broad experience in driving organizations’ technology solutions and product offerings across a variety of different industries, including educational publishing, manufacturing and financial services. He adds value by driving strategy and partnering with clients, delivering technology with professional services to help them unlock their potential.  Scott has held roles at Pearson Education, Amplify Learning, McGraw-Hill and the Fireman’s Fund insurance company.

In his short tenure as acting CEO, Winner has spearheaded the strategy for the forthcoming launch of Ingenta Aperture, shifting the organization’s focus towards key Products and Services, while increasing engagement with Ingenta’s partners and stakeholders.

Scott Winner commented: “I am delighted to have this opportunity to drive Ingenta’s strategic direction forward during this exciting period of transformation and look forward to partnering with our clients and applying my skills to contribute to the evolving world of publishing in all its aspects.  Ingenta’s long independent history combined with strong industry knowledge and functionally superior solutions gives me an opportunity to focus both my passion for technology solutions and my fondness for the written word.”

LM Information Delivery, one of the leading global providers of subscription and information management services, is pleased to announce the appointment of Caroline Currie as Country Manager for the UK and Ireland.

Caroline has over 20 years’ experience in the STM publishing sector and joins LM Information Delivery form Taylor & Francis, where she was Global Head of Corporate Sales.

She will be joining the experienced and dedicated team based in LM Information Delivery’s Banbury office and is looking forward to visiting as many customers as possible over the coming months:

“I’m thrilled to be joining LM Information Delivery”, says Caroline. “The company’s growth and development over the past years, both in the UK and across the globe, is something I’ve followed with interest. As the top supplier for various national consortia and with many other high profile clients in the UK and Ireland, this is an exciting time to be joining the company. I’m looking forward to leading the talented team of information professionals and building on the great work they’re doing in order to drive the business forward.”

LM Information Delivery’s Chief Commercial Officer, Juan Carlos Martín Gonzalez commented: 

“We’re excited to welcome Caroline to the LM Information Delivery UK team. When recruiting for this role, we were committed to finding the ideal candidate who would be able to take our UK operations to the next level. After a rigorous recruitment process, we were very pleased to be able to appoint Caroline. Her breadth of knowledge and experience within the STM publishing industry makes her ideally suited for this role and I’m confident that her business development background and proven leadership skills will be appreciated by our both our UK staff and customers.”

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., a global research and education company, today announced that Jay Flynn will take on the new role of Chief Product Officer for Wiley’s Research business. In addition to his current duties leading the Research publishing group, Mr. Flynn will now be responsible for Wiley’s society portfolio, as well as digital product strategy for the business. Jay will drive innovation and be evaluating the larger Research strategic roadmap to ensure Wiley meets the evolving needs of our market.

“Researchers are our North Star and our success is measured by our ability to meet their needs,” said Judy Verses, Executive Vice President of Research at Wiley. “Jay’s new role helps us to provide researchers with the critical tools necessary to advance their research.”

Mr. Flynn began his online publishing career in the mid-1990s at Elsevier Engineering Information, where he worked on database products for the German-speaking market. He later transitioned to New York to work on the launch of Elsevier’s Science Direct and has held senior roles at Wolters Kluwer Health and Cengage Learning. Jay has been at Wiley since 2010, serving most recently as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Research Publishing.

“Now more than ever, we need to pay careful attention to where research and technology trends are taking our industry,” Mr. Flynn said. “Researchers are communicating in amazing new ways and using new tools to share their work. At Wiley, we will continue to focus obsessively on helping researchers make a bigger impact, not just in their chosen fields but far beyond. I’m excited to lead Wiley’s great team of product managers, editors, data scientists and publishers as we bring a renewed focus to the subject communities we serve.”

Following four years at Wolters Kluwer as VP Sales EMEA, Andy Douglas is rejoining Springer Nature as VP Commercial for Nature Research, the brand which includes Nature, the leading international weekly journal of science.

Bringing together a wide range of services, Andy will oversee sales and marketing for all of Nature Research’s Client Marketing Services – advertising, career services, sponsorship, custom publishing and conferences – as well as for the company’s researcher services, such as Nature Masterclasses and Naturejobs.

Commenting, Andy Douglas said: “I am delighted to be returning to Springer Nature at such an exciting time. Next year Nature is 150 years old and I’m looking forward to working with the prestigious brands in the portfolio such as Nature and Scientific American. Our digital advertising capabilities as well as our ability to directly meet researchers’ needs via training and career services, all enable us to create exciting opportunities for the research community.”

Commenting, Dean Sanderson, Managing Director, Nature Research, said: “We have ambitious goals at Nature Research – to become the leading online provider of training services for scientists with Nature Masterclasses Online; to expand our position as the leader in STM career services and to become the go-to provider of strategic marketing services to research-led organizations across the globe. With his in-depth experience in scientific advertising and full understanding of Nature’s products and brand, Andy is the ideal person to join up our initiatives across custom publishing, sponsorship, and institutional partnerships which will allow us to achieve these goals and better help the research community advance discovery.”