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Frances Pinter

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Frances Pinter

Frances Pinter (born 13 June 1949) was the founder and executive director of Knowledge Unlatched, a (then) not-for-profit company creating a global library consortium enabling sustainable open access academic book publishing.[1] She was also the CEO of Manchester University Press from 2013-2016.[2]

Education

Pinter received her PhD in International Relations from University College London and her B.A. in Political Science from New York University. She also studied as a General Course Student at the London School of Economics.

Publishing career

Pinter Publishers

Frances Pinter set up her own publishing company, Pinter Publishers, in 1973, at the age of 23, which focussed on the social sciences and is believed to be the first British publishing company owned by a woman.[3] In 1985 she was joined by Iain Stevenson who founded the environmental imprint Belhaven Press and in 1986 acquired the humanities publisher Leicester University Press.[3] Belhaven Press was sold to John Wiley & Sons in 1993 and Pinter Publishers itself disposed to Cassell (publisher) in 1995.[4]

The Centre for Publishing Development

In 1994 financier and philanthropist George Soros hired Pinter to become the head of his Open Society Institute's international publishing program, whose goal was to support publishing and education in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after the fall of Communism.[3][5] She established "The Centre for Publishing Development", which became part of the "Information Program" (whose staff are based in Budapest, London, and New York), a later initiative of the Open Society Institute.[6] During that time she established the Central European University Press, EIFL, and initiated numerous other projects.

Bloomsbury Academic

Pinter was the founding publisher[7] at Bloomsbury Academic from 2008-2012, an imprint of the Bloomsbury Publishing Group, which publishes titles in the Social Sciences and Humanities; Bloomsbury Academic both markets the books commercially using print on demand technology and also provides free digital versions with Creative Commons licenses for non-commercial use.[8] At Bloomsbury Academic she was the Publisher of the Winston Churchill Archives.[9][10][11]

Other Activities

Pinter is a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, where she conducts research into how active participants in global civil society frame the reform agenda of intellectual property rights.[8][12] Previously, she served as a consultant to Creative Commons.[13]

Pinter was also project leader of Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa (PALM Africa), a project based in Uganda and South Africa funded by the IDRC.[14][15] The goal of the project was to study whether flexible licensing arrangements (such as Creative Commons) are viable models for local publishers, and what business models emerge from this approach.[16]

From 2002 to 2006, Pinter was CEO of International House Trust, which owns a London-based language school as well as a 50% share of the 150 school network International House World Organisation Ltd.[17]

Pinter was a trustee of Redress, a charity focussed on helping torture survivors.[18]

Frances Pinter’s contribution to academic publishing was recognised at an early age as she became the youngest (and only the second) woman to be elected to the Publishers Association governing council,[19] the youngest deputy director of the PA’s Book Development Council, the youngest publisher ever to lead official publishing trade delegations to Japan, Korea and China. She also sat on numerous committees and advisory boards.

In February 2015, Frances Pinter was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Curtin University, for her leadership in open access publishing.[20] She is an associate member of Curtin University's The Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) under its New Models of Publishing research program.[21][22]

Notes

  1. ^ Frances Pinter, "Open Access for Scholarly Books?", Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
  2. ^ Keighren, Jon. "New CEO for Manchester University Press".
  3. ^ a b c Frances Pinter. Frances Pinter (Home Page). Frances Pinter, 2009. Web. Accessed 22 March 2009.
  4. ^ "Cassell increases earnings by 38". HeraldScotland.
  5. ^ John Varoli, "Russia: Soros Boosts Libraries And Publishing", b-info.com (Bulgaria: News), 8 May 1998. Accessed 20 March 2009.
  6. ^ Center for Publishing Development. Previous home page of the Open Society Institute, which features this notice: "The Center for Publishing Development no longer exists as it was merged in year 2000 with the Internet Program and the Network Library Program into the Information Program. This website is being preserved for reference purposes for some time but it should be kept in mind that a part of its content is out of date." Official site of the Open Society Institute has been relocated to <http://www.soros.org/>. Cf. "Information Program". (Frances Pinter is not listed as a member of its "Staff"; its history is defined in "About This Initiative"; all accessed 22 March 2009.)
  7. ^ "Free thinking at Bloomsbury - The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com.
  8. ^ a b "Bloomsbury Publishing Launches Academic Imprint", London School of Economics, 5 September 2008. Accessed 20 March 2009. (press release about Bloomsbury Academic Press.)
  9. ^ "Bloomsbury to e-publish one-million page Churchill archive - The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com.
  10. ^ "Publishing Technology, Bloomsbury, 29 May 2012" (PDF).
  11. ^ Brown, Mark (28 July 2010). "Winston Churchill archive to go online". the Guardian.
  12. ^ "Dr Frances Pinter", London School of Economics.
  13. ^ Frances Pinter, "Creative Commons Explained". Writers Magazine 2008. Writers Magazine: The Website for Writers (WriterServices.com). Accessed 20 March 2009.
  14. ^ "Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa" Archived 2008-04-07 at the Wayback Machine and the Shuttleworth Foundation (PALM Africa). Information and Communication Technologies. International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Web. Accessed 22 March 2009.
  15. ^ "Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa" (PALM Africa). Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo. International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Web. Accessed 22 March 2009.
  16. ^ Andrew Rens (Blogger), "Fruit from PALM Africa". Shuttleworth Foundation (Blogs). Shuttleworth Foundation, 2 June 2008 (12:09). Web. Accessed 20 March 2009.
  17. ^ Cf. "International House World Organisation: United Kingdom: International House London". Web. Accessed 22 March 2009.
  18. ^ "Trustees". Redress: Seeking Reparation for Torture Survivors. Web. Accessed 22 March 2009.
  19. ^ "Frances Pinter". www.pinter.org.uk.
  20. ^ "Frances Pinter Honorary Doctorate Award | Curtin University". ccat-lab.org. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  21. ^ "New Models of Publishing - Centre For Culture & Technology". ccat-lab.org. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  22. ^ "Dr. Frances Pinter | Curtin University". ccat-lab.org. Retrieved 2015-09-05.