OUR 2025 SPEAKER

Keith Webster was appointed Dean of University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon University in July 2013 and was additionally appointed as Director of Emerging and Integrative Media Initiatives in July 2015. He was installed to the Helen and Henry Posner Jr. Dean’s Chair in 2021 and has a courtesy academic appointment at the University’s H. John Heinz III College. 

Keith has also held Deanships in major research universities in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Before joining CMU he was Vice President for Global Strategy at international publisher Wiley, based in the company's US headquarters. Keith has served as Chair of the National Information Standards Organization, is a member of the steering committee of the Coalition for Networked Information, and is a Trustee of OCLC, a global, nonprofit cooperative library organization with 30,000 members in more than 100 countries.

Keith is a professional futurist, known for blending foresight, change leadership, and digital transformation, who regularly consults with corporate, not-for-profit and professional organization boards. His professional interests include AI, research evaluation, and the economics of scholarly communication. He is a regular speaker on topics such as the future of communication and the impact of open science on publishing and libraries.