Our Team

Fiona is the MoreBrains Partnership and Community Development expert. With 20 years of experience in publishing and scholarly communications, Fiona has an unparalleled understanding of the models, strategies, workflows, and potential synergies that make up the global research information ecosystem. With expertise in social science methods, community management, strategic analysis and an exhaustive knowledge of all aspects of the business and practice of scholarly publishing, Fiona has an unparalleled knack for locating the best pathway to a solution. With her insight, extensive network of contacts, and skill in energising collaborations, Fiona is perfectly placed to set those solutions in motion.

After completing a DPhil in English at Oxford University, Fiona began her publishing career with Wiley as a production coordinator. After a stint at Random House Australia as an Editorial Coordinator and then in London as Senior Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury Academic, Fiona returned to Wiley as a Publisher in Earth Sciences. In these roles, Fiona developed deep expertise in publishing operations across editorial, production, commissioning, market strategy, portfolio development, and many other areas. Importantly, Fiona’s work as a publisher was trans-disciplinary — across the humanities and the social, physical, and natural sciences. She led forward-looking projects that involved newly-emerging trends like open and linked data, open access, cross-stakeholder collaborations, and challenge-oriented research (for example environmental science and climate change).

It was these experiences, working at the cutting edge of scholarly communications innovation, that inspired Fiona to move into independent research, both as an associate fellow at the University of Reading, and a consultant. Initially with Maverick Publishing Specialists, and later as founder and director of Murphy Mitchell Consulting, Fiona built a reputation as an expert in the use of data-driven decision-making and scholarly infrastructure. She worked with a wide range of organisations including the Belmont Forum, FORCE11, Sloan Foundation, Bodleian Library, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Jisc, and the Institute of Physics creating understanding and driving alliances between funders, researchers, institutions, and publishers.

Fiona continues to be a leader in research infrastructure, and particularly open data, including in her role as deputy chair of the Dryad Board, working closely with the Executive Director and other Board members to define Dryad’s future direction and strategy. She’s a founder member of the STM Research Data Group, a member of the Research Data Alliance and FORCE11, and the Researcher to Reader Advisory Board. With a holistic understanding of ‘how things work’, Fiona is a keen industry watcher with a sharp eye for the points of intersection that others often miss. When there’s a need to develop a functional coalition to affect change internally or between organisations, Fiona is our go-to person to figure out how all those sometimes seemingly disparate pieces will fit together to create something truly innovative.