Contact: Sara Lloyd
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4th October 2007: Annette Thomas, currently Managing Director of the Nature Publishing Group (NPG), has been appointed CEO of Macmillan Ltd with immediate effect, following the departure of Richard Charkin.
Annette will have the same structural responsibilities as Richard did and will therefore report to Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO of Holtzbrinck Group, Macmillan’s parent company. John Sargent will continue to be responsible for the US operation, reporting to Stefan.
Annette joined Macmillan 14 years ago with Nature magazine. She has held a number of editorial and publishing roles within NPG including Publisher of the ground-breaking Nature Reviews series before being appointed Managing Director in October 2000. During the past seven years, under her leadership, NPG has established itself as a major scholarly publisher, extending the reach and influence of the Nature brand in science and medicine and developing an enviable reputation for innovation particularly in the digital space. Earlier this year, she was awarded the Kim Scott Walwyn prize, set up in 2004 to celebrate outstanding achievements by women in publishing.
Mike Barnard, who has been coordinating UK and overseas operations since Richard left, will stay on board as Deputy Chairman.
Stefan von Holtzbrinck commented, “Annette has been an extremely successful and popular colleague on the main board of Macmillan, where she has contributed valuable input to our strategic development. We have all admired her dynamic and creative management style. Annette’s great strengths in the scholarly, science and academic fields will complement perfectly John Sargent’s wide experience in trade and higher education, giving us an extremely strong international team.”
Annette Thomas said, “I feel hugely honoured and excited to continue where Richard has left off. Macmillan is in a fantastic position for further growth and development on a number of fronts. I intend to build on that with the help of my colleagues in the UK and around the world. We have an outstanding team and I’m looking forward greatly to working with them all in this next phase of Macmillan’s development.”
About NPG
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. NPG's flagship title, Nature, was first published in 1869. Other publications include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature Clinical Practice and a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. NPG also provides news content through [email protected]. Scientific career information and free job postings are offered on Naturejobs.
NPG is a global company with headquarters in London and offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Delhi, Mexico City and Basingstoke. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.
