Science|Business names new chairman, CEO in push for global growth

BRUSSELS-Media company Science|Business named an ex-GE executive as its new chairman and promoted its managing director to CEO as part of a reorganisation to speed global growth.

Carlos Härtel became chair of the company’s supervisory board on 5 July. Härtel, currently an independent innovation-strategy advisor, was previously chief technology and innovation officer of GE Europe, and president and CEO of the company’s German subsidiary. He was also, from 2013 to 2017, president of the European Industrial Research Managers Association.

Maryline Fiaschi, managing director of the company since 2016, was promoted to a newly created position of CEO. Before joining the company in 2011, she managed EU education programmes with the European Commission for six years and then entered the media business in 2007. She held business development positions at Shanghai Daily and EU affairs media company EurActiv. She is also an external evaluator for several EU higher education and research and innovation programmes. She holds degrees from Université La Sorbonne, Università di Bologna and Université de Louvain.

The changes follow two retirements from the board: Richard Flaye, longtime Science|Business chair and former UK media executive, and John Wyles, former Financial Times foreign editor and Brussels communications consultant. Two-cofounders, Richard L. Hudson and Peter Wrobel, continue on the board – Hudson as vice chair and editor-in-chief.

The moves are part of the company’s plans to speed growth as the R&D world refocuses in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Europe as across the world, governments have boosted R&D budgets and recognised more clearly the importance of research for national prosperity, health and social progress.

“As the European leader in R&D news and events, Science|Business is in a good position to assist key R&D players in their expanding efforts to cooperate on cross-sector, cross-border projects,” said Härtel. “Our company rapidly grew its online audience, and its global network of supporting organisations, during the COVID crisis – gathering nearly 1 million users in 2020.  Now, as R&D expands on health, climate, AI, quantum, space and other fields, we believe there is strong demand for high-quality news and events that bring together research, industry and policy.”

“In the last months, our network expanded in Estonia, Poland, The Netherlands. Our readership grew in Canada, India, Germany and many other countries. In tumultuous times, the global research community needs more than ever a reliable place to gather intelligence, meet and speak up”, said Fiaschi. “It is the core mission of Science|Business and we will pursue it as the demand for such a unique platform grows around the world”.  

Science|Business is a UK company with a Belgian subsidiary, founded in 2004, and  provides daily news coverage of EU R&D policy developments, about 30 R&D events a year, and specialised communications services.

It maintains a network of more than 70 member-organisations with a deep involvement in R&D. They include ETH Zurich, Imperial College London, Sorbonne University, Polytechnique Montréal  and the University of Bologna; companies including Microsoft, Novartis, Toyota and Pfizer; and public sector organisations including CERN, Business Finland, France’s CNRS and the Fonds de Recherche Québec. The company’s founding purpose: to promote cross-border and cross-sector collaboration in R&D through high-quality news, events and networking.