Management Team
Stefan Tochev (Chief Executive Officer)
Stefan Tochev joined the MDPI in 2020. He holds a BA Honours in Sociology from the University of Guelph (Canada) and a Post-Diploma in Marketing Management from George Brown College (Canada). With over a decade of experience as a Project Manager and Research Consultant for global market research studies, primarily in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, he brings a strategic, insight-driven approach to brand marketing and communications. Since stepping into a leadership role at MDPI, Stefan has led the expansion of the corporate marketing and communications department and played a key role in strengthening the company’s global brand presence. He is committed to driving meaningful organizational change, creating a culture of opportunity and collaboration, and positive, high-impact work environment that enhances employee engagement and supports long-term growth. He continues to invest in his leadership development, including completing the altMBA program.
Alistair Freeland, Executive MBA (Chief Operating Officer)
Alistair Freeland initially joined MDPI in February 2006, supporting Dr. Shu-Kun Lin as an editor of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. In 2008, he graduated from the University of St. Gallen with a degree in Business Administration. From 2008 to 2013 he worked at IBM, with responsibilities in the areas of IT delivery and IT service management. From 2013 to 2019, Alistair served as a member of MDPI's executive team in his capacity as Chief Operating Officer (COO). In 2020, he joined SIX Group, where he played a significant role in developing the digital asset platform SDX (SIX Digital Exchange) as a Senior Product Manager. He also founded the not-for-profit scholarly webcast platform Leadwire. Alistair rejoined MDPI in October 2023. He also holds a degree in Performing Arts from the University of East Anglia and an Executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen.
Dietrich Rordorf (Chief Technology Officer)
Dietrich Rordorf leads collaboration between MDPI’s Product and IT teams to deliver innovative, high-quality technical solutions for scholarly publishing. He first joined MDPI in 2005, holding early roles as Assistant Editor and Managing Editor before moving into executive leadership, including positions as CEO and CTO. From 2016 to 2020, he focused on software development projects outside MDPI before rejoining the company in 2020. Since then, he has overseen major technology initiatives, including the adoption of a modern front-end stack. He holds a BA in Business & Economics and an MSc in Business Information Systems.
Constanze Schelhorn, PhD (Head of Publishing)
Dr. Constanze Schelhorn is Head of Publishing at MDPI, where she has strategic responsibility for Publishing functions across Indexing, Publication Ethics, and Books. In this role, she provides governance oversight and strategic direction to ensure the consistent application of publishing standards, research integrity frameworks, and external compliance requirements across MDPI’s scholarly portfolio. Constanze joined MDPI in 2016 and has held a range of editorial and publishing leadership roles. Appointed Publisher in 2019, she focused on establishing collaborations with learned societies and has served as Project Manager for MDPI’s Journal and Article Management System (JAMS). She also supported the Board of Scientific Officers as Scientific Officer for Physical Sciences until 2022. Since 2023, she has led MDPI’s Indexing Department, holding primary responsibility for the indexing and database positioning of MDPI’s expanding portfolio of journals, books, and preprints. Constanze holds a Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Würzburg and a PhD from the Technical University of Munich, completed in collaboration with the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona.
Helen Li, PhD (Publishing Director)
Dr. Helen Li holds a PhD in Marine Geology from Tongji University, China. She joined MDPI in September 2016 and has since advanced through various editorial positions, including Assistant Editor, Managing Editor, and Publisher. With extensive experience in editorial processes and journal operations, she brings deep expertise in article processing and editorial management. As Publishing Director, Dr. Li oversees and coordinates the global Publisher team, leads journal development and strategic initiatives, and plays a key role in optimizing MDPI’s publishing service ecosystem. Her leadership supports MDPI’s mission to provide high-quality, efficient, and author-focused publishing services.
Tim Tait-Jamieson, PhD (Head of Publication Ethics)
Dr. Tim Tait-Jamieson holds a MSc and PhD in Geography from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Tim Joined MDPI in 2021 and has worked in several roles within the Publication Ethics department throughout this time. He has built an extensive level of experience by developing and implementing various MDPI publication ethics policies and process, as well as successfully handling numerous ethic cases. As Head of Publication Ethics, Tim leads the development of MDPI’s global ethics strategies, the implementation of ethics policies and processes, and is responsible for promoting a culture of integrity, safeguarding publication quality, and maintaining trust in the scientific record.
Aleksandra Cuculovic (Head of Finance)
Aleksandra joined MDPI as financial assistant in June 2014. She holds a Bachelor degree in Economics with major in Operations Management. From October 2018 to October 2019, she served as Financial Coordinator where she was responsible for internal financial processes and reporting. From November 2019, she worked as Financial Controller, responsible for cost controlling, annual reporting and budget planning. Currently, as Head of Finance, Aleksandra oversees all MDPI ’s financial operations and supervises the finance teams working in MDPI subsidiaries around the world.
Kurtis Jackson, MA (Head of Author Services)
Kurtis Jackson first joined MDPI in 2016. He holds a first-class Bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish and a Master’s degree in Translation Studies from Cardiff University. In 2019, he opened and established MDPI’s office in Manchester, UK. After serving as Office Manager for two years, he became Head of English Editing, contributing to MDPI’s efficient and high-quality service to authors. He is committed to developing MDPI’s Author Services to support authors more fully in the writing and publication of their research.
Laura Wagner (Head of Books Division)
Laura holds a Bachelor degree in Art History and History from the University of Basel. After her studies, she started her career at an art gallery in Basel. Since joining MDPI in 2014, she held several roles within the firm. This included editorial work, development of reprint and book services and the temporary management of the journal Arts. Currently Laura holds the role Books Manager and is in charge of the development and strategic direction of MDPI Books.
Peter Roth (Senior Executive Advisor)
With a career in publishing going back to 1986, Peter Roth has witnessed the development of the Open Access publishing concept since its inception. Peter, who joined MDPI in 2019, has a keen focus on ensuring that the Open Access model delivers a ‘triple win’: success for our customers, success for ourselves as a company, and success for the scientific community at large. He was for many years Director of the Editorial Division of Karger Publishers, a worldwide publisher of scientific and medical content based in Basel, Switzerland. Peter has extensive experience of editorial strategy, publication concept development and management, and new business development and customer relationship management on all continents, especially in Asia. Within MDPI, he has overseen the establishment of a range of new journals and books, reorganised editorial governance, and set up our first office in Japan.
MDPI Board of Directors
