Herman P. Spruijt

Following studies in the University of Leiden, Herman P. Spruijt began his career at Kluwer Publishing Company in 1974, where he held a variety of positions in printing and publishing divisions.

Between 1981 and 1987, he was a member of the board of directors of the newspaper group Perscombinatie, as statutory director and publisher responsible for Trouw, a Dutch national daily newspaper. In 1987 he entered Elsevier as Managing Director of the Physical Sciences and Engineering Division and after three years joined the board of directors. In 1994, he became Vice-Chairman and CEO and in 1995 he was appointed as Chairman of Elsevier Science and joined the board of Reed Elsevier PLC.

Currently he is acting as Chairman of the Board of De Monchy and Royal BDU and board member of Royal Brill, the Financial Newspaper 'Financieele Dagblad' in The Netherlands. After several years of associative work in the field of publishing, Herman P. Spruijt was elected President of the International Publishers Association (IPA) for a two-year period from 1 January 2009.