Martin Spencker

Martin Spencker is currently Managing Director at Thieme – Medical Sciences – and has a more than 30 years background in Scientific, Technical and Medical publishing. Based in Stuttgart, he is also Managing Director of Recom GmbH, a specialist publishing house for medicine and nursing. 

Martin’s career reflects his passion for publishing in the digital age. He began his career in the 1980s with an apprenticeship at Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart, followed by managerial positions in New York with MacMillan Professional Books and Oxford University Press. After volunteering in a Kibbutz in Israel, Martin went on to study philosophy at the Jesuitenkolleg in Munich. Returning to publishing in 1990, he became a publishing assistant to the CEO of Eugen Ulmer Publishers in Stuttgart. Since 1993 Martin has helped shaping Thieme’s transition into the digital age. After four years as Head of Marketing and Sales at Thieme’s division Ferdinand Enke Verlag, he accepted a position as Head of Publishing for the Medical Education Program at Thieme Publishers, Stuttgart, in 1999. Since then he has progressively taken greater roles within the company, also overseeing the acquisition of other publishing houses.

Martin’s vision is to drive the development of tools, products and services which are key to the completion of the digital transformation. During his career to date, Martin has actively taken part in the digital transformation process introducing various innovative business models and has been responsible for many award-winning projects.

Over the last few years Martin has also played a very active role within the German Publishers and Booksellers Association and the German RRO VG WORT. He sees supporting a strong copyright system and connecting the national and international representations  as important challenges for international Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishing.