Herman P. Spruijt has been involved in publishing since 1974 holding key positions in both national and international publishing.
He started as an editor with one of the Kluwer titles, worked in their printing industries and finally became a science publisher with Martinus Nijhoff (later Kluwer Academic). He joined Elsevier Science Publishers in 1987 where in 1995 he was appointed as the Chairman and CEO of Elsevier Science and on the board of ReedElsevier.
He served, amongst other positions in the publishing industry, as a Treasurer of STM (Scientific, Technical and Medical publishers, 1993–1999), on the board of ICSTI (International Council for Scientific and Technical Information) and in the Industry Advisory Committee of WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization, 1998–2003).