Dear SSRN community,
I wanted to write to you with some personal news. After thirty years as Managing Director of SSRN, the last eight within Elsevier, I've decided that it's now time, in the immortal words of John Cleese, for something completely different.
My career and life changed for the better back in 1994 when my KPMG tax client, Michael Jensen, asked me to help him launch a business to share "Tomorrow's Research Today." Three decades later, the Social Sciences Research Network has expanded across all sciences and evolved to include more than 70 disciplines. Today, the SSRN platform holds over 1,230,000 pre-print articles from over 1,700,000 researchers, which have been downloaded over 275,000,000 times.
Leading a team of pioneers that made sharing early-stage research online possible, well before online is what it is today, has brought tremendous joy to me and many of you. Together with the support and trust from academic researchers who shared our vision, we have helped transform an industry for the better. Elsevier has proved an incredible home for SSRN, fulfilling all we as a team and I as an individual hoped to achieve. I leave it feeling very pleased that the company Mike, I and countless others helped to build is in good hands.
I have had the distinct honor and pleasure to work with many wonderful colleagues at Elsevier and throughout the academic and scholarly publishing worlds. Many friendships were forged over the years at work, conferences, and dinners. I'll miss working and spending time with all of you.
This month will be my last at SSRN. When recently I was asked if I was leaving the industry, I laughed and said I work at the second greatest scholarly publisher of all time and helped found the first – so where would I go? I'm not moving, as my family and I love Rochester, New York, and I will soon share our next adventure on LinkedIn. You can also look forward to an announcement soon about the evolution of the SSRN leadership team.
In the meantime, I can't thank enough all the people who have worked with and around me at SSRN for enriching my life. You have been truly spectacular, and I look forward to seeing many of you again in the next phase.
Thank you again,
Gregg
