Board of Directors

Joyeeta Gupta is full professor of environment and development in the global south at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the University of Amsterdam and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. She is also the Faculty Professor on Sustainability (2019-2024) and leads the programme group on Governance and Inclusive Development, managing 10 permanent facult members, 3-4 post-docs and approximately 60 PhD candidates. Finally, she is also the Co-Convener of the University's Centre for Sustainable Development Studies, for which she coordinates and leads all related activities, including the recent and successful third annual (virtual) conference - which saw over 1900 registrations and participants from over 30 countries. Joyeeta Gupta is co-chair of UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook-6 (2016- 2019), published by Cambridge University Press, which was presented to governments participating in the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2019, and was covered in newspapers worldwide. It has just won the Association of American Publishers PROSE award for Environmental Science. She has also been named as co-chair of the Earth Commission (2019-2021), set up by Future Earth and supported by the Global Challenges Foundation, together with Johan Rockström and Dahe Qin.

Dr. Yuko Harayama was an Executive Director in charge of international affairs, the promotion of early career researchers and diversity at RIKEN, Japan's largest research organization for basic and applied science. She's currently serving at RIKEN as a senior advisor. Prior to joining RIKEN in 2020, Dr. Harayama spent 5 years at the Cabinet Office of Japan serving as an Executive Member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy, Cabinet Office of Japan. She is the former Deputy Director of the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD. She is a Legion D'Honneur recipient (Chevalier), and was awarded honorary doctorate from the University of Neuchâtel. Previously, she was Professor in the Department of Management Science and Technology at the Graduate School of Engineering of Tohoku University. She holds a Ph.D. in education sciences and a Ph.D. in economics, both from the University of Geneva.

Nikunj Jinsi has over 20 years of venture capital investment experience in developing markets and advises several global finance institutions on developing their venture programs for emerging markets. In addition, Mr Jinsi is currently involved in founding multiple innovative investment platforms, each leveraging his unique investment background in developing markets. Until mid-2019, Mr. Jinsi spent 16 years with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) where he built the largest EM focused venture platform, in terms of footprint coverage, and headed a team of over 30 investment professionals in eight locations globally. He has held board positions in several leading technology companies in Emerging Markets and been involved in 12 investments that have gone on to be unicorns. Mr Jinsi is currently the founding Chairman of EMPEA’s Venture Capital chapter. Prior to joining IFC in Washington DC, Mr. Jinsi spent nine years living and working in Asia. He was a Managing Director for one of Asia’s leading venture funds. Earlier he spent four years in the Asian TMT investment banking industry providing M&A and corporate finance services to clients throughout the region. In addition, Mr Jinsi was the co-founder of South East Asia’s largest independent marketing communications agency, which was successfully sold to the Omnicom Group. Mr. Jinsi started his career working as a Project Engineer/Manager at KPN, in The Hague, The Netherlands. Mr Jinsi, a Dutch national, has an MBA degree from Stanford University, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar, and an MSc. degree in Electrical Engineering, from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

Dr. Beverly Malone is currently President and CEO of the National League for Nursing. Her tenure at the NLN has been marked by a retooling of the League's mission to reflect the core values of caring, diversity, integrity, and excellence and an ongoing focus on advancing the health of the nation and the global community. She was ranked amongst the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine in 2010 and 2015; in 2016 Dr. Malone moved up the ladder to claim 39th place in the field of leading policy-makers, activists, health care professionals, and corporate figures in the health care, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. Additional recognition in 2016 includes the Florence Nightingale Award and induction into the Home Care & Hospice Hall of Fame, an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University; and induction into the Nursing Hall of Fame at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Within the last several years, Dr. Malone was elected to the Institute of Medicine and tapped to join the board of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Emilie Marcus is the Executive Strategy Officer at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine where she is responsible for working with the leadership of the school and hospital system to drive alignment between medical and graduate school education, biomedical research and clinical care for optimized health outcomes. Prior to joining UCLA in 2018, Emilie spent 20 years at Cell Press with the last 7 years as CEO and the last 15 years as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Cell. Under her leadership, Cell Press expanded beyond biomedicine to become an all-science publisher, launching successful journals in chemistry and energy and the new interdisciplinary journal iScience. She also introduced industry-leading innovations in peer-review, methods reporting to support reproducibility and expediting access to early versions of articles that are under consideration for publication. As Editor-in-Chief of Cell, Emilie was responsible for setting the long-term strategy for the journal and assessing cutting-edge high-impact conceptual advances in biomedical research globally. She is often looked to as a thought leader on issues facing scientific publishing including the value and robustness of the peer-review process, handling potential conflicts, scientific ethics and misconduct, supporting rigor and reproducibility, the impact of new information technologies and new publishing business models, and the uses and abuses of the impact factor as a measure of quality. Prior to joining Cell Press, Emilie had a successful research career, first at Yale University, where she received her PhD in Biology/Neuroscience in 1993, and then at the Salk Institute and University of California at San Diego. Emilie was also Editor of Neuron from 2001 to 2003.

Kumsal Bayazit was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Elsevier in February 2019. She has held multiple positions with RELX Group since 2004, most recently as Regional President Europe, Middle East and Africa at Reed Exhibitions. Before joining Reed Exhibitions in 2016, Kumsal was RELX Group's Chief Strategy Officer, responsible for driving strategic initiatives, technology strategy and portfolio management. Prior to that she served in several operational and strategic roles with LexisNexis.

Márcia Balisciano, MBE, Ph.D., is founding global head of ESG and corporate responsibility at RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics, decision tools and events with 33,000+ people and operations in 40 countries. Engaging colleagues throughout the business, she works to ensure RELX’s extra-financial performance furthers competitive advantage and stakeholder confidence. She is Chair of the UN Global Compact Network UK and a Board member of the Foundation for the Global Compact; Chair of the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Council of the Conference Board; and a founding Board member of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens. She is founding director of London museum and educational facility Benjamin Franklin House and previously was special advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce (UK). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, she holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and a PHD in Economic History from the London School of Economics. She is a Member of the British Empire (MBE), an honour awarded by the Queen, and lives in London with her husband and two boys.

YoungSuk 'YS' Chi is an international businessman and a leader in the media and technology industry, and currently serves Elsevier and RELX Group in several different capacities. In his primary role as head of Corporate Affairs for RELX Group, he is responsible for government affairs, corporate communications, corporate responsibility, and Asia strategy for Elsevier's parent company. As non-executive Chairman of Elsevier, he works directly with governments, Elsevier customers and in industry associations worldwide. Mr. Chi also serves as President of the International Publishers Association, a global organization that represents the interests of more than 50 publishing industry association members from countries around the world. Early in his career, as Chief Operating Officer of Ingram Book Group, Mr. Chi founded Lightning Source, the first ever print-on-demand distributor and e-book services provider. After holding several senior executive positions at Ingram Book Group’s parent company, he became President and Chief Operating Officer of Random House. Mr. Chi has also earned widespread respect for his ability to work across cultures. As founding Chairman of Random House Asia, he led efforts to make Random House the first foreign trade book publisher with local language publishing in Japan and Korea. Mr. Chi has served on numerous charitable, educational and industry boards, including Princeton University, Korean American Community Foundation and McCarter Theatre. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the boards of Association of American Publishers and International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers.

Esra is a senior corporate affairs executive with a career that spans healthcare, consumer and regulatory sectors. She joined Elsevier in December 2019 from Coty, the global beauty company, where she was Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. Prior to that, Esra spent over seven years at AstraZeneca as the Global Head of Communications, leading the engagement with a wide range of stakeholders in the research, healthcare and investor ecosystem, including the development of the company's community investment and sustainability strategy. Before joining AstraZeneca, Esra was an Executive Director of the Advertising Standards Authority in charge of Policy, Public Affairs and Communications, where she played a critical role in establishing internet regulation for the first time and transformed the way the watchdog works with industry and government to maintain responsible marketing standards. Previously, she was Head of Corporate Communications and External Affairs for the L'Oreal Group for seven years where she led the L'Oreal / UNESCO for Women in Science laureate programme. Prior to L'Oreal, Esra was Head of Corporate Affairs for Unilever. Esra is passionate about scientific progress and is a long-standing Trustee and Chairman of the British Skin Foundation, a charity dedicated to advancing research into skin cancer and skin health.

Jan Herzhoff is President of Elsevier's global healthcare businesses, which deliver information analytics solutions to hospital systems and academic institutions. In 2012 Jan joined RELX, the corporate group of which Elsevier is a part. He has a broad range of experience in Healthcare businesses across several sectors and has held multiple positions with Elsevier, most recently as Managing Director for APAC Health in Singapore with focus on key growth markets like China, India and Japan. He was previously General Manager of Elsevier's International Education business in London, where he was instrumental in driving the transformation from print to electronic through key product launches and acquisitions. Before joining RELX, Jan was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company in Munich, Germany. He holds a PhD and Masters in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and graduated with a Masters in Finance and Accounting from the University of Bayreuth,

Kevonne Holloway is the Managing Director of Elsevier's Global Content Partners organization, which creates content for Elsevier's books, eBooks, and digital solutions. The content provides the foundation for nursing and medical school student education, is sought by healthcare educators, and is used by practicing clinicians and researchers worldwide. Kevonne is a respected leader in healthcare academic publishing and technology solutions. She brings more than 15 years of health industry experience to her role, managing and implementing pivotal strategic initiatives to provide rich content for Elsevier's growing digital footprint, which directly improves the customer experience by enriching and advancing outcomes. Kevonne's strong background in finance, operations, and management enables her to solve complex problems and turn challenges into opportunities. Her dynamic and inspirational leadership style and passion for supporting customers' content needs motivate her team to bring Elsevier's mission to life and achieve key objectives. Kevonne takes great pride in leading by example, developing others, helping them perform at their best, and giving back to the community. She is also a leading member and decisive voice on Elsevier's Race and Ethnicity Task Force, which is committed to eradicating racial bias from healthcare and research. Before joining Elsevier, Kevonne worked at Pharmacia, Johnson & Johnson, and Synovate Healthcare. She completed her undergraduate studies in Finance at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, and earned a Master of Business Administration from Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri. Kevonne is an active member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and regularly mentors first-generation female college students at her alma mater, North Carolina Central University. In her free time, Kevonne spends as much time as possible with her family in North Carolina, where she can usually be found chasing after her two young nephews.