CHICAGO, April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Wolters Kluwer Health, a division of Wolters Kluwer NV, today announced that Gary Foster has joined as President and Chief Executive Officer of the global Medical Research division, which includes Ovid and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) journal publishing. Wolters Kluwer Health is committed to delivering critical information to meet the unique requirements of healthcare professionals, researchers and clinicians.
"As the leading global provider of information for medical and healthcare professionals, Wolters Kluwer Health is constantly evolving to meet the growing demands of this market by providing broader content and information solutions to help end-users do their jobs more effectively and efficiently," said Christopher Ainsley, President & CEO of Wolters Kluwer Health. "Gary's considerable expertise in the health and IT markets will be invaluable to the Medical Research division and will help us to continue our success, as well as expand into new growth areas to meet the needs of our customers."
Mr. Foster brings more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare and IT sectors, with a focus on software and services. Most recently, he served as President and CEO of PatientKeeper, a software company that provides a leading platform to enable enterprise-wide deployment of handheld computing devices in the healthcare marketplace. In this position, Foster successfully developed and introduced multiple products and technologies for commercial use, negotiated key technology and channel agreements with Cerner Corporation and IBM, and raised over $53 million from leading venture capitalists and strategic partners.
Foster joins Wolters Kluwer Health with relevant experience at General Electric Medical Systems (GEMS), where he led the successful restructuring of an East Coast region in the U.S., and then led growth activities that helped to nearly double the size of the services businesses to $1.2 billion over six years. These growth activities involved repositioning of core businesses, a quadrupling of services offerings, numerous acquisitions, and the start-up of new businesses to drive rapid growth. Foster holds a Bachelor of Arts from American University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"I am delighted about the opportunity to work with an established global industry leader in the medical and health information market, and look forward to leveraging past achievements to take Ovid and LWW journal publishing to the next level," said Gary Foster. "Healthcare professionals rely on a wide variety of resources to make important decisions, and require a full service provider of content, tools and services to deliver information in all formats. Leveraging this combination and advancing the company presents a very exciting challenge."
About Ovid
Ovid (http://www.ovid.com/) is a medical information solutions provider focused on offering the combination of content, tools and services that makes research smarter, faster and more effective. Ovid energizes the thinking of researchers and clinicians by developing the individualized experience each customer needs. We support Ovid Online and SilverPlatter Online customers, and provide a local solution for customers requiring offline access. Ovid is used by the world's leading colleges and universities; medical schools; academic research libraries and library consortia; hospitals and healthcare systems; pharmaceutical, engineering and biotechnology companies; HMOs and clinical practices.
About Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is a leading international publisher of professional health information resources for physicians, nurses, specialized clinicians and students. LWW publishes nearly 275 healthcare journals, including nearly 60 on behalf of societies, 1,500 books in more than 100 disciplines, as well as content-based sites and online corporate and customer services.
About Wolters Kluwer Health
Wolters Kluwer Health (WK Health) based in Chicago, IL is a leading provider of information for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. Major brands include traditional publishers of medical and drug reference tools, periodicals and textbooks, such as Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and Facts & Comparisons; online information providers, such as Ovid Technologies and Medi-Span; and pharmaceutical information provider Adis International. WK Health is a division of Wolters Kluwer, NV, a multi-national information services company with annual sales of more than euro 3.9 billion and 20,000 employees.
Wolters Kluwer HealthCONTACT: Danielle Richichi of Edelman Worldwide, +1-212-819-4804,danielle.richichi@edelman.com, for Wolters Kluwer Health
Web Site: http://www.ovid.com/
