Kumsal Bayazit vs Frank Vrancken Peeters

Kumsal Bayazit

CEO of Elsevier

BIO: As Chief Executive Officer, Kumsal Bayazit is a strong advocate of research and innovation, leading Elsevier’s 8,600 people in their mission to help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Kumsal joined Elsevier as CEO in February 2019 from Elsevier’s parent company, RELX, an R&D-driven FTSE 20 company and global provider of information-based analytics, data services and decision tools. Since 2004, Kumsal has held multiple management positions in the Exhibitions, Legal and Risk divisions, including as Chief Strategy Officer of RELX. Kumsal also chairs the Technology Forum at RELX responsible for technology, risk management and cyber security strategy across RELX, and oversees the coordination of 9,000 technologists and data scientists. Prior to joining RELX, she spent several years at Bain & Company in their New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and Sydney offices. Kumsal earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Economics with honours.

Frank Vrancken Peeters

CEO of Springer Nature

BIO: 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.