Elsevier officials have announced that Karen Hunter, who retired in 2010 as Elsevier's Senior v-p of Global Academic and Customer Relations, has died.
Hunter, who was born in 1945 and died May 31, officially retired in 2010 (although she continued to consult for Elsevier) after a remarkable four-decade career in scholarly publishing. She joined Elsevier in 1976 and ushered in many pioneering initiatives, including projects that led to the development of Elsevier’s flagship ScienceDirect. And despite the discord between Elsevier and the library community over the years, Hunter always stood out, and was deeply admired and valued by librarians.
"Relations between academic publishers and research libraries have often gone through difficult times," notes a remembrance on the Elsevier website, "and, uniquely among publishing executives, Karen was able to genuinely communicate and negotiate."
