Dr Hazel Woodward retires at the end of March. Hazel has been University Librarian and Director of the University Press at Cranfield University for over 13 years. Prior to that she was at Loughborough University as Head of Electronic Information Services. With research interests in electronic publishing and scholarly communication, Hazel has published extensively in the professional literature on digital library issues. She has been very active professionally, having been the Chair of the JISC Electronic Information Resources Working Group and Chair of the Board of Directors of COUNTER. Hazel has contributed hugely to UKSG activities including having been Chair of the Group, joint editor of Serials for nine years and Publications Officer inter alia. She has also served on the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) organizing committee – in all, a full and generous career recognized in the MBE awarded for Hazel's ‘services to higher education’.

The British Library has announced that Dame Lynne Brindley is to step down at the end of July after 12 successful years as Chief Executive at the British Library. Lynne plans to add to her portfolio of interests, which include non-executive Board membership of Ofcom, the Court of the Goldsmiths' Company and several research and higher education bodies.

Richard Boulderstone, Director of e-Strategy and Information Systems Director at the British Library, has been appointed to JISC's new Shadow Board. JISC is in a period of transition to move the organization toward a new legal identity and the Shadow Board has been formed to help manage the process. The transition period is expected to take between one and two years.

At the beginning of February, Professor Martyn Harrow was appointed as Head of JISC in order to see the organization through its transition into a ‘new look’ JISC, following the recommendations of the Wilson Review. Martyn was formerly Director of Information Services at Cardiff University, which he joined in 2003. He is a member of the JISC Board and a Director of JISC Collections and JISC Advance. Martyn succeeded Dr Malcolm Read who retired as Head of JISC in January after 18 years in post, having led JISC since its inception and taken it to the world-class reputation it enjoys today.

[Martyn will be profiled in more depth in the next issue.]

At the beginning of January, Dr Deanna Marcum became the Managing Director of Ithaka S+R, the not-for-profit research and consulting service, which is a part of ITHAKA.

[See ‘People in the News’ in this issue for a more in-depth feature on Deanna.]

In Australia, there have been significant moves at senior levels with others pending later this year. In December, David Howard was appointed University Librarian at Edith Cowan University. David was previously Manager of Library Collections and Access at ECU where he commenced work in 2006, having been employed previously in senior library positions at Curtin University and the University of Western Australia.

At the Australian National University in Canberra, Roxanne Missingham was appointed University Librarian (Chief Scholarly Information Officer) in February. Roxanne was previously the Parliamentary Librarian for the Parliament of Australia, and prior to that was an Assistant Director-General (Resource Sharing Division) at the National Library of Australia for five years. She has over 20 years of senior management experience in Australian public sector libraries.

Also in February, Anne Bell took up the appointment as the new University Librarian at the University of Sydney. For the past nine years, Anne was University Librarian at the University of Warwick in the UK and prior to that was the Deputy Director of Information Services and Systems at King's College London for eight years.

At the end of February, Alison Gordon retired as Academic Librarian from Abertay Dundee University after 16 years in the library. Alison has been responsible for Social and Health Sciences at the library and over the years has played a key role in the Library Management System and OPAC, e-resources, the implementation of federated search and discovery tools, not to mention the library's exemplary information literacy framework, which is used by the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

At the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Librarian Liz Fielden, and Lewis Tiffany both took early retirement from the Reference Library in September last year. Liz joined the library in 1989, becoming Librarian in 2003. Lewis was Periodicals Specialist since he re-joined the library eight years ago. Diana Wood is currently Acting Librarian, having formerly been Library Assistant in the Reference Library.

Lesley Castens moved to the University of Gloucestershire in January as Head of Library and Information Services. Lesley was previously Head of the Barrington Library at Cranfield Defence and Security, having been appointed Associate Director of Knowledge Services at what was then the Defence College of Management and Technology in Shrivenham in 2006. Lesley's focus at Gloucestershire is on enhancing the student experience, knowledge and information-related transferable skills to take forward either into postgraduate education or post-graduation.

At the beginning of March, Caleb Derven joined the University of Limerick as the Head of Technical and Digital Services. For the past four years, Caleb has been at University College Dublin, most recently as Systems Librarian, where he implemented a new library management system and had extensive responsibility for the university's digital library. Caleb replaces Jane Gribbon, formerly Head of Technical Services, who retired in February last year after 20 years at UL.

Also at the University of Limerick, Sean Fox was appointed Library Assistant Journals in January, replacing Bridget Morrissey who retired at the end of last year. Sean moved from Information Services at Limerick.

Jill Taylor-Roe has been appointed to a new role at Newcastle University where she is now Head of Planning & Resources and Deputy Librarian. She retains her longstanding interest in resource management, particularly regarding serials (and UKSG!) but will also be focusing more on HR, space management and supporting the University's international and engagement strategies. Jill was previously Head of Liaison & Academic Services.

At Queen's University Belfast, there have been a number of changes. Trevor Lyttle took early retirement from the post of Assistant Director (Resources Management) at the end of January. Trevor has worked in various roles at Queen's University since 1985, having previously worked at the University of Ulster and in the public library services. He has a long association with all aspects of technical services in libraries and was part of the team which worked on the design of the McClay Library and its subsequent occupation – a move of 1.2 million books, from several locations, in five weeks.

Elizabeth Traynor, Assistant Director (Library Services & Research Support), has taken over responsibility for Library Systems and Bibliographic Services from Trevor.

Rosemary Reid took early retirement at the end of January. Rosemary was confirmed in post as Senior Library Assistant Periodicals at Queen's University Medical Library Institute of Clinical Science in 1998. And, Maxine Sprevak also took early retirement in January as Assistant Librarian at the Veterinary Science Division AFBI Stormont, Queen's University Belfast Library, after nearly 30 years at the library.

All who remember Monica Walsh will be saddened to hear news of her death at the end of December. Monica was Assistant Librarian at what was then the Agriculture and Food Science Library at Queen's University Belfast. Monica, who regularly and memorably attended UKSG conferences, retired in the late 1990s to enjoy her horses and dogs – which she would occasionally ‘have to’ bring into the library to look after.

Last November, Debbi Boden moved to York St John University as Director of ICT and Library. Debbi was previously Director of Library Services at Glasgow Caledonian University, which she joined in 2010 from the University of Worcester where she was Deputy Director of Information and Learning Services.

At the University of Northampton, Alan Rosling has been appointed Head of Resource Development in the newly deconverged Library and Learning Services. Alan was previously Academic Support Manager in Information Services at the University. Philip Thornborow, Collections and Learning Resources Manager, left the University in December after more than 20 successful years in the library.

Last October, Adjoa Boateng joined the University of East London as Collections Development Manager, replacing Rachel Todd who had moved to the School of Oriental and African Studies. Adjoa was previously at the University of Westminster.

At University College, Oxford, Elizabeth Adams became Librarian last September following the early retirement of Christine Ritchie. For the past two years, Elizabeth was Assistant Librarian to Christine.

In October last year, Colette McKenna was confirmed in post as Head of Library Services, University Librarian at the University of Ulster, replacing Elaine Urquhart who took early retirement. Colette was previously User Services Librarian at UU.

Also at Ulster, Liz Young is now Library Resources Manager based at the Jordanstown campus. Liz first joined the library for a year as a Library Assistant in 1983 before qualifying and gaining library experience and returning in 1992 as a subject librarian for various faculties. For the last six years, Liz has been Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian. Liz replaced Stephen Drake (pictured with Liz), who retired at the end of January after 32 years at the library. Stephen joined the library in 1979 as Subject Librarian for arts and humanities before taking on bibliographic services. In 1998, Stephen became Resource Management Librarian and has spent much of the past 13 years managing and implementing the library's transition from individual journal titles to e-journals, the ‘big deals’ and the tyranny of spreadsheets.

At Alexander Street Press, Robert Iannello is now Regional Sales Director, Greater Europe, managing the sales team for the UK and Ireland, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Robert was previously with Gale Cengage where he managed sales teams across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Sarah Durrant has left ALPSP and is resuming her consultancy, Red Sage Consulting, providing research, market insight, training and business development services to organizations in the research information sector.

At Credo Reference, Charles Griswold is now VP of Product Development and Innovation. Charles has over two decades of technical leadership experience, having previously led teams at Accenture, Digitas and Answerthink. Charles was also the founder and CEO of LogixPartners, a software and consulting company for the insurance industry that was centred around web-based technology.

Michael McFarland has joined Credo Reference as Senior Technical Manager, responsible for cloud service management, overall performance management, operational integrity, and customer consultative services. Michael has a background in project management, technology strategy planning and product development and was a founding member of Life123.com, an Ask.com company that was part of the IAC/InterActive network of sites that included Match.com, Evite and Citysearch.

Also at Credo Reference, Jillian Tweet has taken on a new role as Account Manager, working with Credo Reference libraries to help them get the most from their investment in Credo services and collections.

At HighWire, Ed Braniff has been appointed Chief Operations Officer, having been a consultant at HighWire since last June. Ed worked for AT&T for over 20 years, as Chief Financial Officer for their technology and network division, and most recently has held senior level positions with a technology startup in Virginia and for Cedar Group North America.

Bill Matthews is now Director of Business Development at Stanford University's HighWire Press, responsible for the business development activities including sales, marketing and strategic partnerships. Bill has 25 years' experience in sales, marketing research, online publishing and information industries and held executive management positions at several online publishing technology companies, most recently at NetSeer.

In November 2011, Peter Blok joined Publishing Technology as EVP of Global Professional Services and member of the executive team. Peter is responsible for all implementation projects of Publishing Technology's flagship enterprise software platform, advance™, across its worldwide operations. Peter was previously Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Celgene Corporation and Vice President of Global Professional Services at Invensys Corporation.

In November, Bill Davison moved from the role of Chief Operating Office to become Chief Executive Officer at SirsiDynix, replacing Matt Hawkins who remains with the company as an executive advisor and member of the board of directors.

Also in November, Ranny Lacanienta joined SirsiDynix as Director of Product Management to oversee the company's integrated library system product strategy. Ranny has more than 20 years' experience at the Brigham Young University Harold B Lee Library.

James C Smith is now Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Reuters Corporation, having previously been Chief Executive Officer – Professional Division. Before that, James served as Chief Operating Officer of The Thomson Corporation, and before that he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Thomson Learning's Academic and Reference Group.