Frances Pinter (born 13 June 1949) was the founder and executive director of

Knowledge Unlatched Knowledge Unlatched (KU) is an Open Access service provider registered as a for-profit GmbH in Berlin, Germany, and owned by multinational commercial publishing company Wiley as of December 2021. It offers a crowdfunding model to support a varie ...

, a (then) not-for-profit company creating a global library consortium enabling sustainable open access academic book publishing. She was also the CEO of

Manchester University Press Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with t ...

from 2013-2016.

Education

Pinter received her PhD in International Relations from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

and her B.A. in Political Science from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

. She also studied as a General Course Student at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

Publishing career

Pinter Publishers

Frances Pinter set up her own publishing company, Pinter Publishers, in 1973, at the age of 23, which focussed on the social sciences and is believed to be the first

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

publishing company owned by a woman.Frances Pinter.
Frances Pinter
' (Home Page). Frances Pinter, 2009.

Web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created b ...

. Accessed 22 March 2009. In 1985 she was joined by

Iain Stevenson Iain Stevenson (1950/1951-died March 2017) was emeritus professor of publishing at University College London. He founded the environmental publishers, Belhaven Press. Career Stevenson's first career was in commercial publishing where he worked for ...

who founded the environmental imprint

Belhaven Press Pinter Publishers was a British publishing company set up in 1973 by Frances Pinter, at the age of 23. It focused on the social sciences and is believed to be the first British publishing company owned by a woman. Pinter Publishers earned a rep ...

and in 1986 acquired the humanities publisher

Leicester University Press , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

. Belhaven Press was sold to John Wiley & Sons in 1993 and Pinter Publishers itself disposed to

Cassell (publisher) Cassell & Co is a British book publishing house, founded in 1848 by John Cassell (1817–1865), which became in the 1890s an international publishing group company. In 1995, Cassell & Co acquired Pinter Publishers. In December 1998, Cassell ...

in 1995.

The Centre for Publishing Development

In 1994 financier and philanthropist

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated m ...

hired Pinter to become the head of his

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...

's international publishing program, whose goal was to support publishing and education in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after the fall of Communism.John Varoli
"Russia: Soros Boosts Libraries And Publishing"
''b-info.com'' (Bulgaria: News), 8 May 1998. Accessed 20 March 2009. She established "The Centre for Publishing Development", which became part of the "Information Program" (whose staff are based in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

), a later initiative of the Open Society Institute. During that time she established the

Central European University Press Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, EIFL, and initiated numerous other projects.

Bloomsbury Academic

Pinter was the founding publisher at

Bloomsbury Academic Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a ...

from 2008-2012, an imprint of the

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has ...

Group, which publishes titles in the

Social Sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the o ...

and

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at th ...

; Bloomsbury Academic both markets the books commercially using

print on demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

technology and also provides free digital versions with

Creative Commons licenses A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...

for non-commercial use."Bloomsbury Publishing Launches Academic Imprint"
''

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

'', 5 September 2008. Accessed 20 March 2009. (

press release A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also consider ...

about Bloomsbury Academic Press.) At Bloomsbury Academic she was the Publisher of th
Winston Churchill Archives

Other Activities

Pinter is a visiting fellow at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

, where she conducts research into how active participants in global

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...

. Pinter was also project leader of Publishing and Alternative Licensing Model of Africa (PALM Africa), a project based in Uganda and South Africa funded by the IDRC. The goal of the project was to study whether flexible licensing arrangements (such as

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has releas ...

) are viable models for local publishers, and what business models emerge from this approach.Andrew Rens (

Blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger)
"Fruit from PALM Africa"
''

Shuttleworth Foundation The Shuttleworth Foundation was established in January 2001 by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth as an experiment with the purpose of providing funding for people engaged in social change. While there have been various iterations of t ...

'' (

s).

, 2 June 2008 (12:09).

. Accessed 20 March 2009. From 2002 to 2006, Pinter was

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of International House Trust, which owns a London-based language school as well as a 50% share of the 150 school network International House World Organisation Ltd. Pinter was a trustee of

Redress Redress is a setting right, as of injury, oppression, or wrong. Redress may refer to: * Redress of grievances or right to petition ** Redress of grievances in the United States * Legal redress * Redress (charitable organisation) * Redress Contro ...

, a charity focussed on helping torture survivors. Frances Pinter’s contribution to academic publishing was recognised at an early age as she became the youngest (and only the second) woman to be elected to the Publishers Association governing council, the youngest deputy director of the PA’s Book Development Council, the youngest publisher ever to lead official publishing trade delegations to Japan, Korea and China. She also sat on numerous committees and advisory boards. In February 2015, Frances Pinter was awarded an

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...

of Letters by

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

, for her leadership in open access publishing. She is an associate member of Curtin University's The Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) under it
New Models of Publishing
research program.

References

External links

Frances Pinter
– Official website (includes full CV). {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinter, Frances 1950 births English people of Hungarian descent Living people British publishers (people) New York University alumni Alumni of University College London