He succeeds Michael Chamberlain, who is standing down after nearly ten years as chairman, during which time the company has more than doubled in size, and expanded globally.
Jay has been a non-executive director of BMJ since January 2012, and consulted to the business, particularly on international opportunities, since 2009.
Jay has had a distinguished career in scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing and information services. He is past president and CEO of the Professional & Education Unit of Wolters Kluwer’s Health Division.
Prior to that, Jay was president and CEO of Kluwer Academic Publishers, which is now part of Springer Science + Business Media. He was also president of Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Lippincott-Raven Publishers and Raven Press and before that held numerous executive leadership positions at J.B. Lippincott Company.
Michael Chamberlain commented: "I can think of no one more qualified to take over the chair at BMJ. He will be a great asset and I know that he will help BMJ achieve even higher levels of success."
BMJ is wholly owned by the British Medical Association (BMA) and Jay’s appointment was confirmed at the January BMA Council meeting. He takes up the role at the end of March.
He commented: "It is a great honor for me to be asked to play a greater role with such a distinguished provider of high quality, independent medical information as BMJ. I look forward to working with the BMA, BMJ's Board, BMJ's talented and committed staff, and our many contributors and customers worldwide to keep BMJ at the forefront of its field."
