Philippa Grand joins LSE Press as head of publishing

Philippa Grand has been appointed head of publishing at LSE Press, the open-access publishing arm of the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.

Before moving to the university press sector, Grand gained a PhD in modern British history from the University of Manchester, and spent 10 years at Palgrave Macmillan, rising to global editorial director for social sciences. She has spent the past two and a half years as press manager at University of Westminster Press, an open access university press publishing across the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Speaking about her vision for LSE Press, Grand said: “Social science scholars need a high-quality open access publisher that that works in partnership with them to ensure their research reaches as wide an audience as possible and that can offer innovative approaches to publishing that keeps pace with new developments in the field – a publisher focused on values, care and collaboration.”

Grand joins a new leadership team comprising LSE library director Niamh Tumelty, library associate director Beth Clark, and Professor Dame Sarah Worthington, the new chair of the editorial board. 

Worthington commented: “Philippa’s experience spans university and commercial presses and traditional and open-access publishing, making her ideally equipped to help us navigate the next set of challenges and bring our ambitions to successful fruition. I’m looking forward to working with her.”

Managing director Niamh Tumelty added: “We are delighted that Philippa is joining the team at LSE Press during this exciting phase of development of our open-access publishing list of books and journals. Philippa brings a wealth of expertise, and we can’t wait to see what she achieves in this new leadership position.”