STM publisher Springer, Germany, has announced that Dr. Georg Ralle, President, Springer Business Media, is leaving the company after 25 years to pursue new entrepreneurial challenges. He will however continue to advise the Springer Management Board on the Professional (B2B) publishing business as Senior Consultant with a focus on medical publishing activities.
Martin Mos, COO, will manage Springer Business Media directly, and the management team of Springer Business Media - Ralf Birkelbach, Joachim Krieger, Harm van Maanen, Reinhard Theilmann, Jörg Zorn and Mechthild Sauer - will report to Mos.
Georg Ralle began his career at Springer in Berlin in 1983 as the Director of Advertising for Springer-Verlag. In 1987, he made the move to Heidelberg where he became Publishing Director. He worked directly with Heinz Götze in establishing the scientific communication division and the further development of the publishing house. In 1995, he became Managing Director of Urban & Vogel in Munich, and in 1999, following the acquisition of Springer by Bertelsmann, he became the Head of Professional Medicine for the merged group. Following the merger of Springer and Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2004, Georg Ralle was appointed Executive Vice President, Professional Medicine, and in 2007, he became President, Springer Business Media.
Springer Science+Business Media is one of the world's leading suppliers of scientific and specialist literature. The group publishes over 1,700 journals and more than 5,500 new books a year, as well as the largest STM eBook Collection worldwide.
