17 February 2025

As The Company of Biologists steps into its second century, it also announces a new senior management structure to take the Company forward. Dr Claire Moulton, previously the Company’s Publisher, has been appointed as its first ever Chief Executive Officer. She will be working closely with Katie Ward, who has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer and Charity Director. We meet up with Claire to learn more about the recent changes and how they will strengthen the organisation as it moves forward.

Claire, first of all congratulations on your new role as CEO. Can you tell us a bit more about what prompted the changes in leadership structure?
The Company of Biologists is a successful not-for-profit publisher with a focus on supporting the biological community through its journals, charitable grants and scientific meetings. The publishing industry has always been full of opportunities and challenges, and none so more than now, with activities centred on open science, research integrity, new Open Access models and the rapid emergence of AI tools. After commissioning an analysis of our operations, the Board of Directors decided that the time was right to reshape the management team, enabling us to better leverage the knowledge, experience and skills that we collectively hold within the Company. Their first steps were to invite me to become CEO and Katie to become CFO and to invite us to create a senior management team with representation from the different areas of the organisation. We are excited by the opportunities that these changes have created and look forward to building on them over the coming months and years. Innovation will continue to be a focus, but one thing that won’t change is our wish to put our communities first – readers, authors, reviewers, grant recipients, meeting delegates and librarians.

What do you like about working for The Company of Biologists and what do you look forward to most in your new role?
I suppose the story really starts back when I was a PhD student, reading the Company’s journals, applying for a grant to attend the BSDB/CB Spring Meeting and returning with a collection of Development posters to decorate the lab. Having found a career in science publishing, I had a warm feeling when offered the role of Publisher at The Company of Biologists – it’s good to work for a not-for-profit organisation (and UK charity) and especially one that’s helped you in your own career. The Company has grown a lot since then, with new journals, three community sites and a programme of scientific meetings that bring our communities together. I’ve also enjoyed the recent launch of The Forest of Biologists as a biopositive publishing initiative alongside our other sustainability initiatives. I’m really looking forward to celebrating all of our activities during our anniversary year.

In my new role, I’m starting by refreshing the Company’s strategic plan. A big focus will be supporting a financially sustainable approach to Open Access publishing, that brings all the transparency and benefits of OA together with a business model that ensures company stability as we step into our next century. I also hope to bring different parts of the organisation closer together, looking for synergies between our journals, grants and scientific meetings, for example. By involving our teams in strategic planning, we hope to engage the enthusiasm of all our staff in supporting our future plans through innovation and community focus. We will continue to receive fantastic support from our Board of Directors, all research-active scientists who represent our communities, shape our charitable activities and help us think about who we are – and want to be – as an organisation.

2025 is an important year for The Company of Biologists. How will you be celebrating this milestone?
We have a lot planned for 2025, with our activities of course centred around our communities. We will be bringing together around 500 researchers at Biologists @ 100, our anniversary conference, taking place in Liverpool this March. It’s been planned in collaboration with the three societies we support – BSCB, BSDB and SEB – it includes a day focused on early-career researchers and will feature great plenaries on global topics. I’m expecting the conference to be a lot of fun as well as a chance to catch up with people and organisations that are important to me and to the Company. Our journals will be publishing content throughout the year, celebrating the history and achievements of the Company while also looking to the future. On top of this we have some fun community projects planned, such as 100 Biologists, in which we put a spotlight on 100 extraordinary biologists with links to the Company. And if you have a story about how the Company has supported you and your career, then we’d love to hear from you too through our ‘message in a bottle’ portal.

I’m really looking forward to this year and hope you can join us in our celebrations. I also hope you’ll continue to support us by publishing in our journals, attending our meetings and applying for our grants. Happy 100th birthday!

Please visit our 100 years web page for more information about any of these initiatives.