About me

Photo Credit: Ben Gilbert

Work

I’m Tom, since 2023 I’ve been PLOS’s Chief Digital Officer, which means I’m responsible for the adoption of digital technologies across the organisation, transforming the business and product strategy using technology and data, and evangelising how people, processes and technology can enable PLOS to fulfil its mission to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication.

Before I joined PLOS I worked for the Wellcome Trust in London where I lead Wellcome Collection’s digital department, responsible for its ongoing digital transformation and internationally recognised work in making its collections, content and services as accessible as possible.

In the 7 years I was there, we extended the museum’s reach by designing a digital platform that supported the venue, preserved and made the collections accessible, and reached new users with strong narrative content.

We increased usage of the library collections by over 300%, and enabled the digitisation, ingest and multi-decade preservation of over 100 million library assets (more than 300 TB of data), we redesigned and replaced workflow systems, building a multi-cloud storage service and optimising existing operational processes.

I come from a product management background with extensive experience of delivering innovative digital products and services for a range of commercial and not-for-profit organisations. I was an early adopter of both the Web (I published his first Web page in 1994) and Semantic Web technologies (publishing my first RDF in 2000). I’ve worked at a range of organisations, including the BBC, Nature Publishing Group, Springer Nature, Countryside Commission and a couple of start-ups.

I’m passionate about digital leadership and innovation at the intersection of content, technology and design. My core interests include strategic development, digital transformation, evidence-based decision-making, data ethics and inclusive leadership. I’m a firm supporter of championing and embedding diversity in thinking and practice within our practice.

Life

I live in London with my wife, two children and a cat.

I’m a Type 1 Diabetic, which means I don’t produce insulin. Everyone needs insulin to stay alive; either your pancreas produces it, or you inject it. The alternative is you die. I developed diabetes somewhat unusually late in life, I’ve written about that here.

Elsewhere on the web

You can also find me on Bluesky, Flickr, and LinkedIn.

In the past, I ran a blog, derivadow.com, and I’ve written various articles about my work at Wellcome Collection on Medium.