CHORUS is governed by our members, who serve on our Board of Directors, Committees and Working Groups. A largely volunteer effort, CHORUS is managed by a full-time Executive Director.
Howard Ratner
Executive Director
Howard is the driving force behind CHORUS. Over the past two decades, he played a key role in developing innovative technology solutions that have transformed scholarly communications. He co-founded and chaired the not-for-profit ORCID – Open Researcher and Contributor ID system, and was active in the establishment of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and the founding and technical development of Crossref and CLOCKSS. He was President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) from 2014-2015 and served on its board from 2010-2012 and 2013-2016. He is an active member of the Metadata 20/20 and Scholix initiatives and the STM Future Labs. Howard received the NFAIS Miles Conrad Memorial Lecture Award in 2012. He is a frequent speaker on digital production and new technology themes
Before joining CHORUS, Howard was Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice-President, for Nature Publishing Group where he was in charge of global web and mobile development and operations, content management, production and manufacturing, and information technology across all NPG products. Howard also held positions at Springer-Verlag and John Wiley & Sons.
Contact: hratner[at]chorusaccess.org
Tara Packer
Program Management
Tara Packer serves as CHORUS Program Manager. She joined CHORUS by way of Nature, where she led the Author and Reviewer Services and Manuscript Systems team. She has over 30 years experience in digital and print product delivery, as well as system development and technology management. She has held positions at The Scientific World and Academic Press, where she served as Managing Editor for multiple journals, managing the peer-review and production processes, content management systems, and website design and implementations.
Contact: tpacker[at]chorusaccess.org
Mark Robertson
Asia-Pacific Development
Mark has joined the CHORUS team to grow our activity in Asia Pacific (APAC) with funders, publishers and institutions. For 36 years Mark lead Wiley’s and Blackwell Publishing’s research journal program in APAC as Publishing Director with overall country responsibility for Australia and Japan as Executive Director. He now brings this experience and networks in the region to CHORUS. Mark was key to our recent expansion beyond the US helping instigate the new CHORUS partnerships in Japan and the pilot in Australia while with Wiley.
His other contributions to the publishing industry have included Board appointments with the Copyright Agency Limited, the Australian Publishers Association (APA) and the International Association of STM Publishers (STM), forming and chairing the Scholarly and Journal Committee for the APA and the Japan chapter for STM.
Contact: mrobertson[at]chorusaccess.org
Strategic Marketing Team – Lou Peck
The International Bunch
Lou has been a marketer since 1999 specializing in strategy, product,
research, training and leadership support. Lou has worked for British Standards Institution, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Kudos, ProQuest and Wiley. Since 2016, she has been a marketing consultant and founded The International Bunch in 2019 to help those in the research ecosystem succeed.
Lou mentors for ALPSP, SSP, the Freelance Coalition for Developing Countries and Business Wales. She is a member of the CILIP Marketing and Communications Group, and the ALPSP Membership and Marketing Committee.
Contact: info[at]chorusaccess.org
Strategic Marketing Team – Hannah Baldwin
The International Bunch
With 25 years’ experience specializing in strategic marketing, customer experience and upskilling teams, Hannah has held senior roles leading global marketing teams at ProQuest, Cambridge University Press, the IET and the Royal Society of Chemistry. She is now Director of Marketing Success at The International Bunch.
Hannah also works with ALPSP as a trainer, mentor, SIG chair and committee member, is a member of the Research4Life marketing and comms committee, and is a Board Chair and non-Executive Director.
Contact: info[at]chorusaccess.org
