Michael Forster

Michael Forster is Managing Director for Publications at IEEE, a position he has held since late 2015, and has more than two decades of experience in educational, professional, and research publishing.  Working for both Elsevier and Wiley prior to IEEE, he has served in senior management positions in the UK, the US, and in Germany.  His past roles have spanned nearly all aspects of the publishing industry and include expertise in strategic planning, M&A and portfolio analysis, product management, and content development.

As a leader within Wiley for nearly a decade, Michael’s key management roles included responsibilities as Vice President in the Physical Sciences and Engineering, Research Innovations, and Research Publishing businesses. During his time at Wiley, he was responsible for journal, book, magazine, database, and scientific workflow product portfolios, led development of new content formats for online viewing, and introduced the first semantic enrichment products to Wiley’s online platform.

Michael began his career with publisher Butterworth-Heinemann, where he established a global engineering books program, and led the standardization of the firm’s international publishing and strategy process.  He then worked as Publishing Director for Engineering and Computer Science in Elsevier’s Science and Technology Books business, integrating several international publishing teams into a single publishing organization focused on growth.  During this time he led innovative projects to develop online learning and eBook products, and to transform business models for the textbook market.

Michael received his B.A. (Hons) and M.Eng. in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford.