Leadership Change at SPARC
Rick Johnson, the founding Executive Director of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), has announced his decision to resign. Heather Joseph has been named to succeed him. Joseph is the founding President and Chief Operating Officer of BioOne, an innovative aggregation of high-impact bioscience research journals. The change in SPARC leadership is effective July 1, 2005.
"Rick’s leadership of SPARC was crucial in making libraries an important force in the process of transforming scholarly communication," said ARL Executive Director Duane Webster. "The news that Rick is leaving is tempered, however by having someone of Heather Joseph’s caliber and experience assume this critical role. ARL, SPARC, and BioOne already have close working relationships that will ensure continuity and a seamless transition in leadership."
Joseph held a number of senior positions with publishing organizations in both the non-profit and commercial sectors before signing on to help launch BioOne in 2000. BioOne is a groundbreaking collaboration among scientific societies, libraries, academe and the commercial sector that works to transform the scholarly communication process by providing expanded access to scientific research results. SPARC was instrumental in the establishment of BioOne, raising crucial development funds from SPARC member libraries and supplying business-planning expertise to help ensure the venture’s sustainability. "I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to an organization deeply committed to expanding access to information," said Joseph. "I look forward to the challenge of building on the strong foundation that Rick has built, and working to advance SPARC’s important and ambitious agenda."
http://www.arl.org/sparc/announce/042105.html
SPARC News Release, April 21, 2005
