Publishing industry veteran and a former chief executive officer of MDPI, Dr. Franck Vazquez, has been appointed to lead Frontiers’ strategic partnerships. Dr. Vazquez will spearhead the direction of Frontiers’ global partnership program, enabling growth into new communities, markets, and regions. He brings considerable experience of successful leadership and strategic business development to the role, as well as a resolute commitment to open science and open access publishing.
Dr. Vazquez served as the chief scientific officer of MDPI from 2015 to 2016 and again from 2019 to 2021, and as the chief executive officer from 2016 to 2019. He has also served as a council member for the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and as a member of the board of directors at the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA). The University of Lille awarded Dr. Vazquez a Ph.D. in molecular genetics in 2004 and an M.Sc. in biochemistry and molecular biology in 2001.
Commenting on his new role, Dr. Vazquez said, “Since its beginning, Frontiers has been working hard to make open science a reality at scale. I am incredibly pleased to join the organization and help it achieve its core mission of enabling healthy lives on a healthy planet. Open science has come a long way but there is still work to be done, and I believe Frontiers and its partners have a central role to play in making all high quality science universally, freely, and immediately available.”
Dr. Kamila Markram, CEO and co-founder of Frontiers said, “Franck brings extensive expertize to the role. His experience is ideally suited to leading the strategic direction of our partnership engagement strategy and I have every confidence that his reputation, deep understanding of the scholarly publishing landscape, and determined commitment to open science will make his tenure with Frontiers a successful one.”
