Astrid‎‎‏‏‎ ‎deRidder

Education

• Astrid earned a Master’s in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a particular interest in the production and consumption of text.

• She obtained a Certificate in Publishing from New York University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

• She has completed an MBA from the Open University in the UK in the autumn of 2023.

 Professional Experience

• Astrid has worked in publishing for more than 20 years. Beginning at Random House in New York City, she developed a passion for well-structured content and workflow solutions.

• Moving to the UK in 2013, Astrid focused on educational content, and has worked at Cambridge University Press (opens in a new tab) leading the Content team in the International Education division, heading up the Custom Publishing team at Macmillan Education (opens in a new tab), and as VP of Content at FutureLearn (opens in a new tab).  

 Public Speaking

• Astrid is a much requested public speaker at education, content, and edtech related events and conferences.  She has spoken at the London Book Fair  (opens in a new tab)about accessibility implications of the Marrakech Treaty, delivered the keynote address at the 2016 Typefi Users Conference (opens in a new tab) on the historical similarities between the modern age of digital publishing and the evolution of moveable type during the time of Henry VIII, and was interviewed by the Financial Times  (opens in a new tab)about the growth of online education.  She was invited to BETT (opens in a new tab) as a featured speaker in 2023 and 2024.

 Pedagogy on the Page & Screen

• Astrid is passionate about creating amazing learning content, on the page and on the screen. She has consulted for the World Bank on two education projects, in Vietnam and Albania. In both cases, this involved running workshops and extensive training for local teachers and publishing companies on how to translate best practice pedagogy from the classroom to the textbook or online learning resource.