Thomas, Burridge leave Clarivate; Ahmed given lead role

Annette Thomas, previously c.e.o. of the Web of Science Group at Clarivate Analytics, has left the company.

At the point of her departure, Thomas had recently been made president of a new Science Group which spanned both the Web of Science division and the Life Science division. The restructure that brought the two divisions together, and Thomas's promotion to the president's role, had not yet been formally announced before she decided to depart. Mukhtar Ahmed, formerly president of the Life Sciences division, has now been appointed president of the restructured Science Group in her place.

Meanwhile Samantha Burridge, v.p. of Strategy and Transformation for the Web of Science Group, has also departed the company.

Clarivate’s c.e.o. Jerre Stead said that, with the recent merger and subsequent NYSE listing complete, Thomas and Burridge had decided "it is the right time" to leave Clarivate. He said: “I would like to thank Annette and Sam for providing strong leadership of the Web of Science Group during an important period for our company. Annette joined the Board of Clarivate in early 2017, as a non-Executive Director before taking on the c.e.o. role of Web of Science Group later that year. Annette and Sam have been instrumental in conceiving and executing the initial strategy, building an industry-leading team, initiating exciting new acquisitions in Publons and Kopernio and rejuvenating the heritage of the business with the re-establishment of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). I wish them both well in the future.

“Mukhtar Ahmed is well known to the Web of Science Group senior leadership team and together, they will continue to transform the business with continued investment in technology and innovation, with an enormous sense of pride for what has already been achieved.” The Web of Science Group continues to be “a large part of Clarivate’s growth strategy”, he said.

In a prepared comment, Thomas did not address her reasons for leaving the business so soon after accepting the role of president of the combined divisions, but said: “The Web of Science Group has enjoyed success and rapid transformation – and is in a secure place for continued growth. We have been working hard to bring together our portfolio of products into a powerful, integrated and interoperable research-intelligence platform that comprehensively covers the research workflow end-to-end: prepare, search, discover, assess, award, implement, manage, review, publish, evaluate and exploit outcomes – powered by the Web of Science citation index. This creates a uniquely powerful value proposition that all of our customers will benefit from. We now provide enhanced search, browsing, analysis and visualization, all in one place, augmented by a global consultancy service.  This work continues under the skillful guidance of a global senior leadership team that has been put together over the past two years and both Sam and I wish them continued success.”

Stead said the new structure for Clarivate Analytics “identifies and aligns synergies between our businesses, that will scale as we continue to grow, and that guides us to operate consistently across the company.” The new alignment “will enable us to fully focus on how customers consumer information, while delivering best-in-class online experiences, data products, analyst-driven reports, analytics and more”, Stead said. Ahmed, who joined Clarivate last year, was described as having significant cross-industry experience as well as proven leadership experience, making him “the ideal candidate to lead our combined Science group into the future.”

Ahmed commented: “I have inherited a team of highly talented colleagues across the globe and will do everything in my power to enable them to excel in everything they do, be that innovating with new products, providing world-class content, delivering services or delivering exceptional service and experience to our customers. Together, we look forward to accelerating our growth across a number of key areas, including but not limited to extending our product portfolio and applying next-generation analytics to give our customers a solutions experience that is uniquely differentiated and highly compelling.”