Chief Executive Officer

Member of the Management Board

Frank Vrancken Peeters joined Springer Nature in 2017 as Chief Commercial Officer and became CEO in September 2019. He has spent more than 25 years in the media and publishing sectors, with leadership roles across a range of strategic and delivery business functions in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts. Frank has previously had senior positions at: Wolters Kluwer, where he was Regional Managing Director, Legal and Regulatory, Western Europe; at Infinitas Learning, where he was Chief Operating Officer; and Elsevier Science, where he served as MD Government and Academic Markets, MD ScienceDirect and MD Global Sales, in each case building and growing significant-scale, complex international businesses. Frank holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Chief Publishing and Solutions Officer

Member of the Management Board

Steven Inchcoombe read Physics at Merton College, Oxford and qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC. From 1990 to 2000, Steven was at Interactive Data Corporation, where he ultimately became responsible for strategy, M&A and the EMEA region, and during this period the business became listed on NASDAQ. He then moved on to Board positions with the Financial Times Group, including UK Publisher of the Financial Times and Managing Director of ft.com.

Steven joined the Macmillan Board in 2006. From 2007 to 2013, he led the Nature Publishing Group (NPG), and in 2013 became CEO of Macmillan’s Science and Scholarly division, comprising NPG, Scientific American and Palgrave Macmillan. Following the creation of Springer Nature in May 2015 he was appointed Managing Director of its Nature Research Group and most recently promoted to Chief Publishing Officer for Springer Nature in March 2016.

Group General Counsel

Member of the Management Board

Rachel Jacobs holds postgraduate diplomas in Law and Legal Practice from the College of Law, as well as a degree in Environmental Science from the University of Leeds. As an experienced corporate lawyer, she has held roles at CMS Cameron McKenna and various senior positions in the legal team at the FTSE listed media business, Informa plc.

Rachel joined Macmillan Science and Education as Global General Counsel in 2011, before taking up her role at Springer Nature in May 2015.

Chief Commercial Officer (starting Feb 2020)

Member of the Management Board

Charlotte Liu holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. She started her career at the Boston Consulting Group in Shanghai and subsequently spent a decade in North America working in a number of senior management roles, including at McGraw-Hill in New York. From 2011 to 2016, Charlotte served as President of Springer Nature Greater China having originally set up the Shanghai office for Macmillan Science and Education. In 2017, Charlotte joined the global art auction house Christie’s as MD China before becoming Global MD of Asian and World Art. In February 2020, she will become Chief Commercial Officer of Springer Nature.

Chief Operating Officer

Member of the Management Board

Martin Mos received a Masters degree in Economics and Accounting from the University of Groningen, and began his career as a member of the auditing department at Ernst & Young. He moved on to several positions at Elsevier, including positions in internal auditing for Elsevier International, management roles at Elsevier Business Information and Chief Financial Officer for Elsevier Science.

Martin served as Springer’s Chief Operating Officer from 2004 before moving into the same position for Springer Nature in May 2015.

Chief Financial Officer

Member of the Management Board

Ulrich Vest holds degrees in Business Administration and Engineering from the universities of Darmstadt and Lyon. He became Manager of Controlling at Procter & Gamble GmbH, and then returned to academia as a research assistant and PhD candidate in the Finance and Corporate Accounting department at Bayreuth University.

Following his time in academia, Ulrich held several high-level positions at Bertelsmann AG, Bertelsmann Fachinformation and BertelsmannSpringer. He became Chief Financial Officer at Springer Nature in May 2015, following 11 years as CFO for Springer.

Chief Information Officer

Jan-Erik de Boer has a strong track record in the field of computer sciences and management. From 1992 onwards he worked as IT Manager at the Housing Corporation “Binnen de Ringvaart” and Relan ICT. Between 2000 and 2004, Jan-Erik served as Manager of Operations & Support and ICT Director at Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Following the merger of Kluwer Academic Publishers and Springer, Jan-Erik de Boer became Springer’s IT Director in 2004, taking on the role of Executive Vice President of IT in 2007. In 2015, Jan-Erik was appointed Chief Information Officer of Springer Nature.

Executive Vice President Management Reporting / Planning Analysis

Koen Gulen joined Springer in 2002 and held various positions in Project Management and Finance before becoming Director Management Accounting / Controlling in 2006. After the merger in 2015, Koen took on the role of Executive Vice President Management Reporting, Planning and Analysis for Springer Nature. Koen holds a Master’s degree in International Business from the University of Stirling and a Master’s degree in American Studies from Utrecht University.

Chief Human Resources Officer

Gregor Karolus has spent more than 25 years in research and publishing. He holds a diploma in Business Management and began his career in Research Management at the German Research Centre for Environmental Health, Helmholtz Zentrum München. From 1997 on, Gregor held several senior HR positions at Bertelsmann in the Professional Information Division. From 2002 on, he assumed the Top-HR Function first at BertelsmannSpringer and later at Springer Science+Business Media. Since the merger in 2015 he is Chief Human Resources Officer at Springer Nature. Gregor has also served as Judge at the Industrial Tribunal in Berlin from 2002-2012 and since 2012 at the Higher Industrial Tribunal Berlin-Brandenburg.

Vice President Corporate Strategy

Daniel Korany studied international marketing at universities in Germany and Mexico, later becoming a Director at Simon-Kucher & Partners in Munich, where he worked on consultancy projects in strategy, marketing, sales and pricing in the media and technology sectors. In 2017, Daniel joined Springer Nature as Director Pricing Commercial Analytics within the CCO leadership team, where he has led a number of strategic projects across the business and played a key role in the development of new business models.

Managing Director, Education and Professional

Joachim Krieger holds an MBA from the University of Stuttgart. He started his career at the Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF), where he worked in different sales positions and in 1996 was eventually appointed Head of Sales and Service for WMF Coffee Machines Germany. In 2000 Joachim became Director of the Heinrich Vogel Verlag and subsequently held different positions in the Professional division of Springer Nature. In October 2019 he was appointed Managing Director Education & Professional.

Group Head of Corporate Affairs

A history graduate from the University of Leeds, Joyce Lorigan has spent more than 25 years in communications.  Recent London-based roles include VP Global Communications of FTSE 100 company Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG plc) and VP Corporate Communications for the Walt Disney group of companies in EMEA. Joyce also spent three years as Director of Alliance Marketing for EuroDisney SCA based in Paris. She joined Macmillan Science and Education as Global Communications Director in 2012 and became EVP Communications for Springer Nature following the merger in 2015.  Joyce chaired the Board of London-based business partnership Urban Partners from 2014-2017.