Accepting his two-year term as President, which starts in the New Year, Dr Kolman said: ‘These are challenging and rapidly changing times in the world of publishing, but publishers have consistently shown themselves to be highly adaptable. We will need to build on that further to continue to achieve the IPA’s objectives, most notably the protection of copyright and freedom to publish.’

“These are challenging and rapidly changing times in the world of publishing.”
Dr Michiel Kolman

Dr Kolman, who is the current IPA Vice President, is Senior Vice President of Global Academic Relations at Elsevier, the world’s leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information solutions. Dr Kolman’s publishing career spans 25 years, during which he worked for Elsevier in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Frankfurt, and also at Wolters Kluwer in a division now part of Springer Nature.

Based in Amsterdam, Dr Kolman is also a member of the Dutch Publishers Association, and boasts an impressive array of academic qualifications, including a PhD in astrophysics from Columbia University in New York where he studied as a Fulbright scholar.

Handing over to Dr Kolman, Richard Charkin said: ‘I know that Michiel will make an excellent President of the IPA with his global and hands-on experience of international publishing. It has been a great honour for me to be president and I’m sure Michiel will feel the same way. The role of the IPA and its President is becoming ever more important as our industry navigates the threats and opportunities of a continually changing political, technological, legal and creative landscape.’

Mexican publisher Hugo Setzer, CEO of Manual Moderno, was elected to be the next Vice-President for 2017-2018 and president-designate for 2019–2020.

In addition, the General Assembly voted for new members of the Freedom to Publish and Membership Committees, as well as four new Executive Committee Directors.

In alphabetical order, the Executive Committee now consists of:

  • Al Qasimi, Bodour (UAE)
  • Bonnier, Eva (Sweden)
  • Dutilleul, Pierre (France)
  • Fernández, Daniel (Spain)
  • Gbadega, Adedapo (Nigeria)
  • Ghosh, Asoke (India)
  • Hoepli, Giovanni (Italy)
  • Jittidecharak, Trasvin (Thailand)
  • Kaufmann, Joachim (Germany)
  • Li, Pengyi (China)
  • Littlewood, Simon (UK)
  • Murray, Brian (USA)
  • Pansa, Karine Gonçalves (Brazil)
  • Setzer, Hugo (Mexico)
  • Vanschoonbeek, Rudy (Belgium)
  • Werner, Stocker (Switzerland)
  • Wafawarowa, Brian (South Africa)
  • Yamamoto, Norio (Japan)

For more information about the IPA’s governance structure, see here.