Jan Velterop leaves Springer

Jan Velterop, Springer’s director of Open Access and driving force behind Open Choice, Springer's open-access scheme, is leaving to pursue a new career as CEO of KnewCo. One of the most prominent figures of the open-access community, Velterop joined Springer in August 2005 from BioMedCentral, an established open-access biomedical research publisher, where he was publishing director.

During his time at Springer, Velterop was instrumental in both outreach to the research community and also in familiarising Springer’s publishing professionals with the possibilities that open access can deliver for the company.

‘When I joined Springer to promote Open Choice, I did so knowing that it would not be enough to simply promote this service to authors in the scientific community. I realised that a large part of my role would be to convince publishers that open access was not a threat to established publishing companies, but rather an opportunity. I am happy to say that the reaction from authors and institutions was positive and that my colleagues have come to accept that Open Choice can be a valid alternative to the subscription model, especially in some disciplines,’ said Velterop.