CAS Head To Retire In 2014

Robert J. Massie, who has led Chemical Abstracts Service as president for 21 years, has announced that he will retire in March 2014. CAS is a global leader in chemical information and is a division of the American Chemical Society, which publishes C&EN.

“Bob Massie’s leadership of CAS for the past two-plus decades has been nothing short of astonishing,” says ACS Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Madeleine Jacobs. Massie joined CAS in 1992, “a time when the organization was struggling with the digital world,” Jacobs adds. His insight led to the development of SciFinder, a desktop tool that gives researchers access to a comprehensive collection of chemical substance and reaction information.

“It is through Bob’s focus, vision, planning, and execution that CAS has built the most authoritative and comprehensive chemical databases in the world, coupled with easy-to-use technology,” Jacobs says. “As a result, scientists around the world can do their research faster, more accurately, and more comprehensively.” Massie also enhanced ACS’s partnership with FIZ Karlsruhe to provide STN, which offers access to key scientific and intellectual property databases of publicly disclosed scientific and technical research. “Clearly,” Jacobs says, “Bob will be hard to replace!”

Bert Davis Executive Search Inc., based in New York City, is conducting an international search for Massie’s successor.