| JJ Ahearn [More Info] Managing Director Licensing Street JJ is a veteran of the licensing industry having worked for Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products, CBS Television, and Memcorp Asia. While at Nickelodeon, JJ worked on such hit properties as: SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, South Park, Chappelle’s Show and Spike TV. At CBS Television JJ was responsible for new business licensing of over 50 CBS properties including Survivor, CSI, Beverly Hills 90210 and Star Trek. He turned around the CBS online store and was responsible for all retail development across specialty, mid-tier and mass channels. JJ served as both Director of Marketing and General Manager for Memcorp Electronics, makers of Memorex consumer electronics. As General Manager of Memcorp Asia, he oversaw marketing, promotion and finance, both in Hong Kong and China. JJ also established licensing agreements worldwide for Memorex brand consumer electronics including Canada, Mexico, Latin America, United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, and more. JJ has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame and a BSBA from the University of Florida. | |
| Simon Allen [More Info] CEO Macmillan Education Simon joined Macmillan Education as Chief Executive in 2011. He has worked in education and professional publishing for over 25 years across five continents. He spent the first 10 years of his career in the USA with medical and higher education publishers, CV Mosby and Richard D. Irwin before returning to the UK in 1995. Since then, Simon has held increasingly senior positions with Prentice Hall, Pearson Education and, since 2000, leading the non-Americas business for McGraw-Hill Education. He has extensive experience in international education markets from school to higher education and extending to adult learning in professional, medical and reference markets. Simon is now responsible for growing Macmillan Education’s businesses across the globe with a focus on expanding and improving the accessibility of educational content and services, through all media. Now based back in the US, he travels extensively and, with his staff, works closely with school and higher education institutions and government education ministries around the world. As the education business continues its transformation from print to digital delivery, Simon is concentrating efforts on extending the reach and quality of content, assessment tools and related services to improve education in both the developed and developing world. While at McGraw-Hill, Simon was elected to serve as President of the Publishers Association, an influential trade association in the UK, from 2009 to 2010. He is a graduate of the Middlesex University Business School in London and has attended numerous executive education programs at the London Business School. | |
| Jon Anderson [More Info] Executive Vice President, Publisher Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division Jon Anderson was named Executive Vice President and Publisher, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division in January 2009. In his position, Mr. Anderson is responsible for the overall operations for the Children’s Division including editorial and production, publicity, marketing and licensing activities. He oversees a publishing portfolio that serves every category of the children’s publishing business, and while maintaining an extensive backlist that includes numerous Caldecott, Newbery, and National Book Award winners, continues to publish acclaimed and bestselling books for children of all ages. Recent award-winning and bestselling titles and series include the #1 New York Times bestseller BARACK OBAMA: Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grimes, THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, TRICKS by Ellen Hopkins, PENDRAGON by D.J. MacHale, THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series by Cassandra Clare the UGLIES series by Scott Westerfeld, the National Book Award finalists CHAINS by Laurie Halse Anderson and THE UNDERNEATH by Kathi Appelt, TWEAK by Nic Sheff, Jon Scieszka’s TRUCKTOWN and ROBOT ZOT, beloved high-profile continuing characters including ELOISE and OLIVIA and NANCY DREW, and books based on Nickelodeon’s DORA THE EXPLORER® and SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS®. Prior to joining Simon & Schuster, Mr. Anderson was the President and Publisher of Running Press Book Publishers, a division of Perseus Books Group. There he was responsible for revitalizing and expanding the publisher’s children’s program to include middle grade and young adult fiction. Before that, Mr. Anderson was at Penguin Putnam, Inc., where he was Vice President and Publisher of Price, Stern, Sloan and Penguin’s DreamWorks program. Prior to Penguin, Mr. Anderson was a merchandise manager and buyer at Barnes & Noble for various categories, including children’s books, mass market, and humor. He began his career at B. Dalton Booksellers, where he worked in retail and as a buyer. Mr. Anderson is also an esteemed author of over twenty-five children’s books under the pseudonym William Boniface, with cumulative sales of more than two million copies. Mr. Anderson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota. He lives in New York City. | |
| Shane Armstrong [More Info] Executive Vice President/President International Growth Markets Scholastic Corporation Shane Armstrong has been Executive Vice President of Scholastic Corporation since June 2010 serves as its President of International Growth Markets since June 2010. Mr. Armstrong is responsible for overseeing all New York personnel in Scholastic's International group as well as operations for Scholastic Asia, Scholastic Export and Scholastic Australia/New Zealand. | |
| Pavan Arora [More Info] Chief Innovation Officer Aptara Pavan is an experienced industry advisor and incubator of new technology. He spearheads Aptara’s innovation efforts by leading its product strategy and product development initiatives. Prior to Aptara, Pavan was a digital innovation consultant to McGraw-Hill, World Bank Publishing, and the Library of Congress. His drive for involvement with cutting-edge technologies has resulted in six start-up launches since graduating from Johns Hopkins University and a three year stint as a venture capitalist in which he helped nurture others’ high-tech ambitions. As a recently inducted member of NextGen Angels, Pavan spends his spare time investing in technology startups and advising entrepreneurs on growth. When Pavan is not thinking about semantic tagging, is can be found entertaining his see-saw obsessed son at the park. @pavan_arora | |
| Jason Allen Ashlock [More Info] Strategist with Movability Movable Type Management Jason Allen Ashlock is the co-founder and President of Movable Type Management, a literary management firm that fosters storytelling across platforms, devices, territories and generations. As such, he develops new books and digital properties with the company’s authors and media clients, and oversees new initiatives such as The Rogue Reader. He sits on the advisory board of a number of technology start-ups in the publishing space and teaches digital publishing at City University of New York, City College. @jasonashlock | |
| Laura Baldwin [More Info] President O'Reilly Media Laura Baldwin started with O’Reilly Media in October 2001 as Chief Financial Officer and added Chief Operating Officer to her responsibilities in October 2004. She became O’Reilly’s first President in March 2011. Laura is largely attributed with managing O’Reilly through the tech downturns of the past decade and is currently responsible for O’Reilly’s worldwide businesses. Prior to O’Reilly she was a consultant to the publishing industry through BMR Associates and managed several large consulting engagements across all genres of publishing. Laura’s publishing career started at Chronicle Books the large, premiere publisher of popular culture, art, and children’s books as well as gift products where she served as CFO for ten years, establishing Chronicle’s successful distribution business as well as helping bring Chronicle’s Gift Business to market. @LauraABaldwin | |
| Wendy Bartlett [More Info] Collection Development Manager Cuyahoga County Public Library Wendy Bartlett has been the Collection Development Manager and Fiction Selector for the Cuyahoga County Public Library system located near Cleveland, Ohio for the past four years. Before joining the Collection Development Department, she was the branch manager for the Beachwood Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, and previous to that was the Assistant Director of the Kent Free Library in Kent, Ohio. Before working in libraries, Wendy was the regional manager for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh area Borders stores. | |
| Maria Bartoszewicki [More Info] Director of Interactive eBooks Aptara Maria Bartoszewicki, Aptara's Director of Interactive eBooks, has unique experience in educational publishing, eLearning, and digital technology. Her current focus includes interactive eBook design and development across multiple platforms and devices. Since joining Aptara, Maria has helped make Aptara a dominant force in the marketplace for leading-edge eBook production, having driven the development of a highly-skilled team of 200 interactive eBook specialists, including Content Architects, Instructional and UI Designers, and CSS and HTML5 Experts.Over the past 2 years, she led the development of unique workflows and scalable production models to produced over 300 advanced digital textbooks for the iPad, Web browser, and mobile device applications for leading publishers. | |
| Judith B. Bass [More Info] Owner Law Offices of Judith B. Bass | |
| Bryan Batten [More Info] Founder eReatah | |
| Craig Bauer [More Info] SVP, Publishing Operations & Strategic Planning Hachette Book Group Craig Bauer is currently the Senior Vice President of Publishing Operations and Strategic Planning at Hachette Book Group with responsibilities for M&A, Digital Media & Distribution, Strategic Planning, Supply Chain and Facilities. Prior he was the Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing for the Houghton Mifflin under Bain & Thomas Lee Capital and during transactions with Harcourt Publishing and Riverdeep Software. Previously, he was the Director of Business Development & Planning for RR Donnelley’s Book Publishing unit and served as the Director of the Graphics Management and Digital Services Divisions. Craig began his career at the Black & Decker Corporation | |
| Paul Belfanti [More Info] Director of Content Architecture Pearson Education North America Paul Belfanti is Director of Content Architecture for Pearson Education North America. Paul has worked in educational publishing for almost 20 years in a variety of creative, production, and technology roles, and has been developing and supporting XML workflows since 2000. In 2009 he established the first ever team within Pearson fully focused on standards and best practices. Paul’s team has led development of standards around content structure (XML), metadata/taxonomy, rich media and image file formats, accessibility and assessment, among others, to lay the foundation for Pearson’s transformation to a unified global, digital and impact-driven learning services company. Recently Paul was program co-chair with Markus Gylling (CTO – IDPF and DAISY Consortium) of the EDUPUB Workshop hosted by Pearson in Boston October 29 – 30, 2013 | |
| Lyron Bennett [More Info] Business Development Manager Sourcebooks | |
| Matthew Bennett [More Info] Director, Strategic Publishing Operations Hachette Book Group | |
| Henrik Berggren [More Info] Founder Readmill @henrikberggren | |
| Peter Berkery [More Info] Executive Director Association of American University Presses Peter Berkery is the Executive Director of the Association of American University Presses. Prior to the AAUP, Peter worked for Oxford University Press, where he has served for the last 4 years as Vice President and Publisher for the US Law Division. Prior to that he worked for Wolters Kluwer for 11 years in a series of positions, publishing works on securities licensing examination training, securities law, taxation, and financial planning. | |
| Julie Blattberg [More Info] Executive Director, Consumer Engagement Open Road Integrated Media Inc. As Executive Director of Consumer Engagement at Open Road Integrated Media, Julie Blattberg is focused on developing a highly engaged audience of ebook readers through email marketing, social media, and the creation and syndication of compelling web content. A book-industry veteran (and book club member since 1998), she works closely with internal marketing teams to craft messaging and create data-driven programs that foster discoverability and conversations around books and authors. @julieBlattberg | |
| Jonathan Bloom [More Info] Counsel Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP Jonathan Bloom is counsel to Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in its New York office, where he specializes in media and First Amendment and intellectual property law. His practice includes counseling and litigation on behalf of news organizations, the Association of American publishers as well as individual book publishers, Internet service providers, and other clients in the areas of copyright, trademark infringement, misappropriation, defamation, and a wide range of First Amendment and related issues. Mr. Bloom has written numerous appellate briefs on issues such as e-book publication rights, the private-figure libel fault standard, secondary copyright and trademark infringement, and copyright fair use, as well as amicus briefs to the US Supreme Court on behalf of the Association of American Publishers and other media and First Amendment organizations in cases including Reno v. ACLU, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, United States v. American Library Association, United States v. Stevens, and United States v. Alvarez. Mr. Bloom has also represented museums, dealers, auction houses, and trade associations in several prominent cases involving disputed ownership of cultural property. Mr. Bloom has published articles on a variety of First Amendment and intellectual property subjects such as public forum analysis, food libel laws, publicity rights, the interplay of copyright law and technology, keyword advertising litigation, and the DMCA. Mr. Bloom is author of the chapter on US copyright law in International Copyright Law (Globe Law and Business 2013). He has also lectured and written on the subject of due diligence by art purchasers and is author of the chapter on stolen art in the Art Law Handbook (Aspen 2000). Since 1998 he has served as Executive Editor of Bright Ideas, the newsletter of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and is a member of the Section’s Executive Committee. Mr. Bloom is a 1984 summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University and received an M.A. in History of Art from Yale in 1987. He is a 1991 graduate of the New York University School of Law. | |
| Sesha Bolisetty [More Info] VP, Content Management John Wiley and Sons I manage the Content Production team at Wiley Global Education. Within my team, we have the overall responsibility to enrich, deploy and manage Global Education content in various Print and Digital channels. We have a great talented team that cares deeply about providing the teachers with powerful content that they need to successfully teach and for the students to learn. Besides Print, the content is deployed in multiple digital distribution channels and within WileyPlus. We work closely with a number of strategic global partners in fulfilling this mission and it is very exciting and challenging to be part of the content management team at Wiley Global Education. In my previous role at McGraw Hill Higher Education, I held positions with increased leadership responsibility over 9 plus years in Content Production. My role involved managing production operations and overseeing the transition to Digital & Multi Channel Content Delivery. I was closely involved with various Global procurement activities and offshore partner development with a number of global content services providers. Traveled to India multiple times and spent extensive amount of time building strategic partnerships and strengthening engagements with offshore content service providers. | |
| Bill Bosak [More Info] President Graymatr Group Bill Bosak is President of Graymatr Group, a consultancy focused defining and leading digital transformation initiatives for clients in the media, entertainment, publishing, consumer products, and financial industries. Bill has more than 20 years experience delivering large-scale business change initiatives at Reed Elsevier, Harper Collins, and Reader’s Digest, and instituted and led the Change Management function at John Wiley & Sons. His focus on balancing the organizational, business process and technology aspects required to institutionalize change-related programs has helped Bill enable businesses to adapt and thrive within rapidly evolving marketplaces. Recent initiatives have included implementing a digitally-focused product /service development process; equipping teams with advanced multi-channel marketing capabilities; re-engineering the manuscript to product process (print and digital); and establishing digital business incubators within existing organizations. Bill is characterized by his peers as a visionary strategist with the tactical chops and charisma to deliver the desired outcomes – along with the passion, wit, and temperament to make undergoing “change” an exciting experience. Bill is reachable on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter @williamBoask | |
| Marc Boutet [More Info] Co-Founder/President and CEO DeMarque What was supposed to be a simple summer job has transformed into a true life project for Marc Boutet. He cofounded De Marque at the age of 15 years old, and has since then constantly showed avant-gardism and innovation. For over 22 years, he has renewed himself and enabled his company to prosper. His flair, ambition, relational skills and ability to share have made him a recognized entrepreneur in his field. He believes in the importance of cultural diversity – from the diversity of books available to the multiplicity of retail outlets around the world, making it possible to reach anyone and everyone. | |
| Micah Bowers [More Info] Founder and CEO Bluefire Productions Micah Bowers founded Bluefire Productions in 2001 and serves as our UX director. Micah leads the Bluefire project teams and collaborates with our clients on content, strategy and experience design. | |
| Donna Boyer [More Info] Chief Product Officer Blurb As Chief Product Officer for Blurb, Donna leads product strategy, new product development, and user experience across Blurb’s bookmaking tools and indie publishing platform. Prior to Blurb, she was COO & VP of Products at Kleiner Perkins-backed Callaway Digital Arts, where she worked with publishers to create award-winning, chart-topping children’s book apps for the iPad. As SVP & GM of Reach Media Group, Donna worked with brands including Starbucks, The New York Times and Yahoo! to create digital out-of-home content and advertising networks. Previously, she oversaw Network Personalization globally across Yahoo! While not at Blurb, Donna serves as an advisor to early stage startups, plays entirely too much Scrabble, and goes to as many amusement parks as possible with her family. | |
| David Boyle [More Info] SVP of Consumer Insight HarperCollins Publishers David Boyle is SVP Consumer Insight at HarperCollins where he is working globally to incorporate consumer insight into the company’s main practices - from acquisition to sales. By providing the business with a better and deeper understanding of consumer behavior and attitudes towards books, authors, book discovery and purchase, he is supporting and guiding product and business development activities, as well as informing our direct-to-consumer and marketing capabilities. He joined HarperCollins from EMI Music, where he was built the consumer insight capability that delivered insight to all parts of the business in more than 25 countries. His work contributed to decision making at all levels of the company, from artist signing to product development and marketing plans for EMI's biggest artists like The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Before that he worked in London for New Philanthropy Capital on analysis of charity effectiveness, for L.E.K. Consulting in London and Boston on corporate strategy, for Tesco helping their international businesses use data and for DSG International. Additionally, he worked in politics for the Labour Party in London and with Democrats in the US where he helped build data and analysis infrastructure that powered the 2008 election of President Obama. | |
| Jess Brallier [More Info] SVP and Publisher Poptropica/Pearson Jess M. Brallier is a publisher, author, and web publisher. Brallier has authored or co-authored 31 books, including Lawyers and Other Reptiles. He is currently SVP and Publisher of Family Education Network (a part of Pearson), an online publisher for: children, parents, teachers, and reference readers. | |
| Greg Britton [More Info] Editorial Director Johns Hopkins University Press Gregory M. Britton joined the Johns Hopkins University Press as Editorial Director in May 2011, where he oversees the acquisition and publishing of the press’s 170 new books annually. He also serves on the press’s management team that oversees the substantial book and journal program, distribution program, and Project MUSE. Prior to his appointment at Hopkins, Britton directed Getty Publications at the J. Paul Getty Trust, the largest museum publishing program in North America, which includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute. During his tenure, he expanded Getty’s publishing partnerships with European museums, launched the Getty Research Journal, and created an ambitious digital initiatives plan. Before that he was director of the Minnesota Historical Society Press, where he managed a significant expansion of the publishing program and a resulting increase in sales and visibility. Britton is a graduate of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and was working on a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, when he began his career in publishing. He is active in both the Professional Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers and the Association of American University Presses. In addition to his duties as Editorial Director, Britton acquires Hopkins’s list in Higher Education | |
| Ken Brooks [More Info] SVP, Global Supply Management McGraw-Hill Ken Brooks is the new senior vice president of global supply chain management at McGraw-Hill. Prior to Treadwell he was senior vice president, global production and manufacturing services at Cengage Learning where his responsibilities included the development, production, and manufacturing of textbooks and reference content in print and digital formats. Before that, Ken was president and founder of Publishing Dimensions, a digital content services company focused in the eBook and digital strategy space. Over the course of his career, Ken has founded a Philippines-based text conversion company; a public domain publishing imprint; and a distribution-center based print-on-demand operation and has worked in trade, professional, higher education and K-12 publishing sectors. He has held several senior management positions in publishing, including vice president of digital content at Barnes & Noble, vice president of operations, production, and strategic planning at Bantam Doubleday Dell, and vice president of customer operations at Simon & Schuster. Prior to his entry into publishing, Ken was a senior manager in Andersen Consulting's logistics strategy practice. @kenbrooks | |
| Patrick Brown [More Info] Director of Author Marketing Goodreads Patrick Brown serves as the Community Manager of Goodreads, the largest book recommendation website in the world. Prior to heading up the Goodreads online community, Brown was an independent bookseller at Book Soup and Vroman's Bookstore. With an intense interest in group interaction online and a love for books, Patrick helps connect people with one another and with their passions. Currently Brown heads the Goodreads Author Program and Customer Care Team. He supports and cultivates one of the largest literary presences online by answering member questions and growing the Goodreads Community through social communication. Brown also develops events and products for the Goodreads website. @PatrickRBrown | |
| Alison Bryant [More Info] Founder & President PlayCollective Dr. Alison Bryant founded PlayScience – a research, consulting, and innovation firm – to break down the walls between industry innovators, academics, and consumers. She leverages her academic research expertise, deep understanding of consumers, entrenched industry knowledge, and strategic vision to partner with organizations looking to create, develop, and launch new products, ideas, and perspectives. She has spent over a dozen years helping clients, colleagues, and students navigate the ever-changing media landscape and understand the lives and lifestyles of youth and families. Alison has spent her adult life moving seamlessly between the academic and industry worlds (and usually sitting in both concurrently). Prior to founding PlayScience, she was the Chief Strategy Officer for Smarty Pants, a research and consulting firm focused on kids, teens, and families. Alison was also previously Senior Research Director of Digital Research and Brand & Consumer Insights for the Nickelodeon/MTV Networks Kids & Family Group, where she led Nick’s efforts to understand the digital lives of consumers, conducting research on a variety of platforms: online, console and handheld gaming, interactive television, and mobile among them. She also served as the research and strategic insights mastermind behind the 18 websites and the Virtual World and Game Studios under the Nickelodeon umbrella, managing brands from Addicting Games to Nick to Neopets to Shockwave. Before joining Nickelodeon, she was an assistant professor of communication at Indiana University. Alison has published and presented extensively, including two edited books –The Children's Television Community and Television and the American Family (2nd Ed). She is presently associate editor for the Journal of Children & Media and Chair of the Children, Adolescents, & Media division of the International Communication Association. Alison is also driven by a personal passion to tackle issues surrounding youth, service, and civic engagement. Her co-edited book, Integrating Service-Learning into the University Classroom, was published in April 2010. She is currently working on her next project, The Generation C Handbook: 101 Challenges for Change, a guide book for young people on how they can create change. Alison’s Ph.D. is from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, and she holds Masters degrees from USC and the University of Alabama. She started her academic life at Davidson College in North Carolina, majoring in German and Political Science and minoring in gender studies and international studies. Alison splits her time between her condo in Brooklyn, looking out at the Empire State Building, and her cabin in western North Carolina, looking out at the Blue Ridge Mountains. She can be reached at alison [at] playsciencelab.com. | |
| Angela Burke [More Info] Product Manager National Fire Protection Association Angela Burke is Product Manager of a diverse set of digital products at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). With 15 years of experience in higher-education and professional publishing, she currently oversees NFPA's enhanced eBook product line, including the National Electrical Code® (NEC®), NFPA 1: Fire Code, NFPA 101: Life Safety Code®, as well NFPA's other top selling titles. Ms. Burke also manages digital continuity products, delivering NFPA Codes and Standards, Handbooks and Annotated Editions to fire, electrical, and building safety professionals worldwide. | |
| Michael Cader [More Info] Creator Publishers Lunch Michael Cader is the creator of Publishers Lunch, the largest-circulation book publishing industry publication in the world, and its companion website PublishersMarketplace.com. For 15 years he created and produced over 300 books through his book packaging company, Cader Books. Publishers Launch Conferences springboard from the branding, vast audience and deep respect for Publishers Lunch–with 45,000 subscribers, the largest publication for book publishing professionals worldwide, and the recognized leader in comprehensive coverage and thoughtful, clear-eyed analysis of the stories and statistics that matter the most in this transitional time. @PublishersLunch | |
| Michael Cairns [More Info] Chief Operating Officer - Online Division Publishing Technology As Chief Operating Officer for the Online Division of Publishing Technology, I am responsible for our IngentaConnect and pub2web content platforms which support over 250 book and journal publishers located around the world. Publishing Technology plc, is the largest supplier of software solutions and services to the publishing industry. As a senior publishing executive, I have deep digital publishing experience including strategy definition, product development, business operations and execution of digital strategies to support new and/or migrated (legacy) business models. Business segments where my digital experience has been applied include professional & academic publishing, education publishing and professional services. In addition, I have broad experience leading and transforming companies and organizations as a senior executive and/or board adviser both domestically (US) and in international markets. Currently a member of the BISG board of directors and prior member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) board of directors. @Personanondata | |
| Rachel Castillo [More Info] Content Architect Inkling Rachel Castillo is a Content Architect at Inkling, helping publishing partners reimagine their content to create beautiful, structured, and meaningful interactive content at scale. Most recently, Rachel worked on bringing Modernist Cuisine at Home, and Lonely Planet’s Best Trips travel series to the Inkling platform. Before Inkling, Rachel worked as a production editor for McGraw-Hill Higher Education, and previously as a documentary film associate producer and assistant editor. | |
| Tara Catogge [More Info] Senior Vice President of Marketing ReaderLink Tara Catogge joined ReaderLink (formerly Levy Home Entertainment) in 2006 to head up all buying and inventory management functions. Prior to joining Levy, she was the Executive Vice President, Sales and Merchandising for Advanced Marketing Services (AMS), working with the wholesale clubs. Prior to joining AMS, she was employed by Harcourt Brace, Inc. as the International Sales Director for the Academic Press book division. Tara holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. | |
| Matthew Cavnar [More Info] VP of Business Development Vook As a founding employee at Vook, Matt is dedicated to helping people create exceptional eBooks with our cloud-based technology platform. Vook was founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Brad Inman with the vision of lighting up the world’s content in the post-PC world. Vook has created an innovative technology platform that produces rich media experiences for the handheld tablet market. Vook works with a range of content partners including NBC, Simon & Schuster, ABC and Hay House and most major distribution channels including Apple, Amazon, Google and Barnes & Noble. | |
| Darcie Chan [More Info] Author Darcie Chan is the author of THE MILL RIVER RECLUSE, a self-published debut novel that has become a word-of-mouth e-book sensation. With nearly 700,000 copies sold, THE MILL RIVER RECLUSE appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists for 30 weeks and became a heartwarming favorite of readers across the country. | |
| Devereux Chatillon [More Info] Attorney Chatillon Law Devereux Chatillon is an experienced media and intellectual property attorney who specializes the area of copyright and trademarks; strategic positioning and risk recognition; and litigation advice, including commercial as well as content related. She works with large and small companies, including established firms and start-ups, to advise them on the use of every kind of content, from digital to traditional print, including licenses, rights and litigation. She also creates new templates for applications and content use across all platforms and provides general advice to clients in identifying and helping minimize legal risk. Miramax Films 2 Chatillon has spent many years at the highest levels of the corporate world, working at Callaway Digital Arts, Inc. (as VP Business Development); Scholastic, Inc. (as Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary & General Counsel); Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (as Partner); Miramax Films (as Executive Vice President); The New Yorker (as Vice President & General Counsel); and ABC (as Senior General Attorney). Educated at New York University (JD, Law), where she served on the NYU Law Review, and Harvard University (AB, American History), Chatillon lives and practices in New York City. She is a Adjunct Instructor in the Masters Program in Publishing at the NYU School of Continuing Professional Studies. | |
| Rachel Chou [More Info] Chief Marketing Officer Open Road Integrated Media Rachel Chou is the Chief Marketing Officer for Open Road Integrated Media. In this role she bridges the traditional world of book marketing with the dynamic, fast-paced world of digital media. Chou is guiding the development of the company's web marketing platform, which fuels Open Road's content syndication and publishing presence on the web and on mobile devices. Chou has more than 20 years of experience in online content and product development. Over the course of her career, she has led teams in the areas of search, content management, creation and syndication. Prior to Open Road, Chou was Vice President, Online Product Development for HarperCollins Publishers. She worked across divisions on digital strategy and on the creation of new digital publishing businesses. Under Chou's direction, HarperCollins launched AuthorAssistant, a proprietary digital toolset that enables authors to deliver multimedia content to corporate and partner websites, designed the first book marketing campaigns to make use of 2D barcode technology, and led its direct-to-consumer ecommerce efforts. Chou's past positions include Executive Producer at R/GA where she conceived and produced online tools and games for educational organizations and websites and Director of Shared Services for Scholastic.com where she helped lead the strategic planning of various online initiatives. Chou has a B.S. from the University of Maryland and an M.S. from Bank Street College of Education. @rachelchounyc | |
| Jaki Clark [More Info] Product Manager Random House Digital | |
| Larra Clark [More Info] Program Director - Office for Information Technology Policy American Library Association Larra Clark is a program director in the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). Her responsibilities include overall management of OITP’s telecommunications portfolio, strategic communications and research, and day-to-day management of projects in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously Larra served as the project manager in the ALA Office for Research & Statistics, where she coordinated the Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study, conducted qualitative research and managed editorial and communications activities. Larra began her career with libraries as the ALA manager of media relations, following more than a decade of experience in non-profit public affairs, government relations, media relations and print journalism. | |
| Roxanne Coady [More Info] CEO RJJulia Booksellers @ReaderRox | |
| Samantha Cohen [More Info] Director, Digital Content Development Simon & Schuster Samantha Cohen is the Director of the Digital Content Development department at Simon & Schuster, where she has been working on all aspects of digital publishing for six years. Under Sam's direction, her group develops ebooks for all of S&S's adult and children's imprints with emphasis on quality and innovation. | |
| Erin Cox [More Info] Business Development Director Publishing Perspectives Erin L. Cox is the Business Development Director for Publishing Perspectives and a Senior Associate at Rob Weisbach Creative Management where she represents writers as a literary agent and consults on publicity and marketing projects. | |
| Jim Cramer [More Info] Author of the new book: "Get Rich Carefully" CNBC's Mad Money Mr. Cramer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where he was President of The Harvard Crimson. He worked as a journalist at the Tallahassee Democrat and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, covering everything from sports to homicide, before moving to New York to help start American Lawyer magazine. After a three year stint, Mr. Cramer returned to Cambridge and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1984. Instead of practicing law, however, he joined Goldman Sachs, where he worked in sales and trading. In 1987, he left Goldman to start his own hedge fund. While he worked at his fund, Mr. Cramer helped start Smart Money for Dow Jones, and in 1996, founded TheStreet.com (now TheStreet, Inc.), a multi-media financial news organization. Mr. Cramer retired from his hedge fund at the end of 2000, having produced an annualized return of 24% after all fees, to embrace media full-time, including radio and television. He is host of CNBC’s Mad Money w/Jim Cramer and co-host of Squawk on The Street. He serves on TheStreet’s board of directors, is a columnist and contributor to TheStreet’s premium products RealMoney and Action Alerts PLUS -- the companion subscription service to Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust which has given away more than $1.5 million since inception. Jim also participates in various video segments for TheStreet TV. Mr. Cramer is the author of “Confessions of a Street Addict,” “You Got Screwed,” “Jim Cramer’s Real Money,” “Jim Cramer’s Mad Money,” “Jim Cramer’s Stay Mad for Life,” and “Jim Cramer’s Getting Back to Even.” His new book, Jim Cramer’s Get Rich Carefully will be published in January 2014. | |
| Mary Cummings [More Info] Editorial Director Diversion Books With background in editorial, marketing and project management capacities, Mary Cummings handles acquisitions for Diversion and assists in business development and strategy. Mary has worked with over 100 authors and their agents throughout the life cycle of their projects to maximize the sales potential and marketability of their works, including S.E. Hinton, Greg Behrendt, Colin Mochrie, Anita Mills, Roger Kahn, Mark Cuban, and The Washington Post. | |
| Colleen Cunningham [More Info] Ebook Developer F+W Media, Inc. Colleen Cunningham is an Ebook Developer at F+W Media, Inc and an adjunct professor at Emerson College in the Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing. As a print book designer, Colleen found that information hierarchy and consistent design could be directly applied to ebook development. A member of AIGA and Boston Book Builders, she is eager to teach others what she's learned about the challenging, yet rewarding, world of ebook production. Venues include the Digital Book World Conference, Print and ePublishing Conference, HOW Design Conference, Bookbuilders of Boston Spring Forum Series, Boston InDesign User Group and the Massachusetts College of Art. She is a founding member of the friendly and helpful #eprdctn group on Twitter / @BookDesignGirl. @BookDesignGirl | |
| Richard Curtis [More Info] President Richard Curtis Associates, Inc Richard Curtis is a leading New York literary agent (www.curtisagency.com) who foresaw the Digital Book Revolution and launched an e-book publishing company early in 2000. E-Reads (www.ereads.com) is one of the foremost independent e-book publishers in the industry, specializing in reprints of genre fiction by leading authors in their fields. Curtis is also a well-known author advocate and author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including several books about the publishing industry. | |
| Amanda D'Acierno [More Info] SVP, Publisher Penguin Random House Audio, Fodor's and Living Language As Senior Vice President and Publisher of Fodor’s Travel, D’Acierno is focused on propelling the 77 year old brand into the digital age while maintaining Fodor’s trusted voice in travel. D’Acierno is refining the brand’s digital strategy for e-book and app production while continuing to grow the robust print guidebook business. A native of Houston, TX, D’Acierno has always been a traveler, growing up on airplanes with a father who worked as a pilot. A harrowing flight with her father at the controls of a small private plane whisking the family from the path of Hurricane Alicia didn’t stop D’Acierno from becoming a flight attendant for Continental Airlines following college. After touring the globe and sharing a Newark, NJ “crashpad” with other flight attendants, D’Acierno embarked on a career in publishing. D’Acierno’s extensive publishing experience includes positions in publicity and marketing (both at Phaidon Press and Random House Audio) as well as event management (at Barnes & Noble’s flagship Union Square store in New York City). In addition to Fodor’s, D’Acierno also leads Random House Audio, Reference and Large Print as well as Living Language, imprints of Random House LLC’s Digital Publishing Group. | |
| Laura Dawson [More Info] Product Manager for Identifiers Bowker Laura Dawson is Product Manager for Identifiers at Bowker. Previously, she has worked at the following companies:Firebrand, Muze/Rovi, SirsiDynix, Barnes & Noble.com, Independent booksellers, Bantam Spectra Books, and Doubleday. Laura has also been an independent consultant to the publishing industry. Her clients have included: Bowker, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Cengage, Audible,Alibris, Loyola Press, Carson-Dellosa, Chuckwalla ,Capstone Press,Book Industry Study Group | |
| Joel Dehlin [More Info] Chief Technology Officer Instructure Joel loves education and is a wannabe teacher. He’s worked at established companies like Arthur Andersen, Microsoft, the LDS Church, and OC Tanner; but prefers startups. He's a nerd, but likes to explain complicated things to non-technical people. He is married & has seven kids, plays in a rock band, and loves to snowboard. | |
| Paul Dever [More Info] Elsevier Paul Dever joined Elsevier in 2000 and has been working to publish medical reference and text books online ever since. For most of that time he has specialized in the formats and workflows that support both print and electronic production, and has worked to integrate these separate processes. In the last 8 months his focus has shifted to the technical aspects of product management as Elsevier moves their online medical library from its native format into Inkling’s HTML based Habitat. While this effort has brought him back to his roots with a large scale content conversion project, the long term payoff promises to be the ability to explore even greater integration of content development and production processes. | |
| Allison Dobson [More Info] VP, Business Development Random House Allison Dobson is Vice President, Business Development and Digital Publishing Director at Random House, a division of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher. In this capacity, Ms. Dobson manages all Random House’s digital original publishing imprints (Loveswept, Flirt, Hydra and Alibi) as well as external partnerships and other new business opportunities. Prior to Random House, Ms. Dobson spent two years with Bertelsmann as Director of Business Development working across the Bertelsmann portfolio. Prior to her transition to the media industry, Ms. Dobson spent seven years in communications and public policy in Washington, D.C., serving on the senior staff of Senators Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Tom Harkin (D-IA). She also served as a travelling press secretary and national spokesperson for the John Kerry for President Campaign in 2004. Ms. Dobson currently serves on the Leadership Council of Public Prep, a charter management organization in New York City, and is an active volunteer with children’s educational and recreational programs. She holds a BA with Honors in Economics and Government from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Harvard Business School. | |
| Sara Domville [More Info] President F+W Media, Inc. Sara Domville is co-President F + W Media, a media executive with a proven track record. F+W Media, Inc. is a leading multi-media content company connecting passionate, likeminded groups of enthusiasts to share an ongoing exchange of information, ideas, and inspiration. The Company serves seventeen vertical communities including fine art, craft, woodworking, writing, genealogy, antiques and collectibles, design, outdoors, and Digital Book World. F+W have successfully transitioned from a print to a highly diversified media business offering a wide range of products and services to exceed consumer’s expectations. F+W Media’s core strengths are ‘Community, Content, Commerce and Curation’. The Company's portfolio includes 46 magazines, 20+ special interest publications, 650 new books released annually, a 4,350 title backlist, and more than 4000 eBooks. Its media division includes 30 community-based ecommerce stores providing a vast range of quality products and services, 225 free and for-fee subscription sites, online educational including instructor led courses as well as streaming video/TV, competitions, and 30 b2b and b2c events. F+W Media continue to change and adapt its innovative, entrepreneurial culture to take advantage of growth opportunities organically and through acquisitions of new businesses and communities to its portfolio. During 2012 alone the company acquired Interweave, a major content and community craft business, Martha Pullen Company, The Writers Store, World Tea and most recently has added a significant new partnership with BurdaStyle.com to create a new range of online and physical products for the fashion sewing industry. @saradomville | |
| Cameron Drew [More Info] Director, Global Content Acquisition Kobo, Inc. Cameron Drew, Director, Global Content Acquisition. Most recently focused on new & emerging eBook markets, Cameron previously helped launch Kobo in Canada, US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan & India. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from McGill University and a Masters of Philosophy in New Media from Australian National University. | |
| Daniel Ehrenhaft [More Info] Editorial Director Soho Teen Daniel Ehrenhaft is the Editorial Director at Soho Teen, Soho Press’s new YA imprint, which launched in January 2013. He has worked in YA since 1993—both as an Edgar-winning and bestselling author (for The Wessex Papers and the Countdown series, respectively), and as editor and packager, helping to create the Gossip Girl and Peaches series, among others. Over the years, he’s had the privilege to work with David Levithan, Jon Scieszka, Katherine Applegate, John Green, and scores of other extraordinarily talented authors and editors. He was a 2012 National Book Award Judge and currently serves on the CBC Diversity Committee. | |
| Tony Ellis [More Info] Vice President, Industry Advancement National Association of College Stores Tony joined the National Association of College Stores (NACS; Oberlin, Ohio) as the director of education in October 2001. In that position, he directed the development and implementation of professional development programs and publications including an industry-specific series of self-directed learning books, face-to-face training, and online courses and self-directed learning modules. Tony also directs the educational program for CAMEX (the association’s primary annual conference). Under his guidance, NACS has developed the College Store Competency Model. Tony also manages the NACS Certified Collegiate Retailer program. In October 2010, Tony was promoted to Chief Knowledge Officer. In his new role, his responsibilities have been expanded to include setting direction for and implementing and guiding the development of the NACS Knowledge Center—charged with implementing knowledge management systems and processes for NACS and its members. In August 2013, Tony was elevated to Vice President for Industry Advancement. In addition to existing responsibilities, he now oversees the Volunteer Relations and CCRA functional areas. Tony’s experience includes more than 20 years of work in training, teaching, coaching, and leadership education. He has been working in associations for more than 17 years. Prior to coming to NACS, Tony was the Associate Executive Director of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI). There he managed the development and implementation of ACUI's Annual Conference and other professional development programs, managed daily operations of the staff, and managed the College Union and Student Activities Evaluation Service. Tony earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) designation in May 2001 and holds a Master of Science in Education from Indiana University-Bloomington. His undergraduate degree is in Business Administration and was awarded from the University of Texas at Arlington. | |
| Wendy Elman [More Info] Founder & President Welman Digital LLC Wendy Elman is a senior executive with more than 20 years of strategic and operational experience with businesses ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. She has a proven leadership record in brand building, launching e-commerce and mobile applications, team building, asset monetization, and P&L management. Wendy specializes in digital strategy and operations, product development, e-commerce, mobile channel development, and organizational design. Prior to launching Welman Digital, Wendy held a number of senior leadership positions, including: VP, Digital Solutions for Scientific American, where she set the digital strategy and was responsible for bringing new products and services to market, including mobile applications and e-commerce; VP, Global Online Marketing, at The Economist, where she managed digital strategy, new audience acquisition, and product development for Economist.com; and Senior Director of eCommerce and Online Consumer Marketing at Scholastic, where she spearheaded the launch of several webstore properties and consumer marketing programs for parents, teachers, and kids. She began her digital media career at Random House as Director, New Media. | |
| Joseph Esposito [More Info] Independent Management Consultant Joseph is a management consultant working primarily in the world of digital media, software, and publishing. His clients include both for-profits and not-for-profits. A good deal of his activity concerns research publishing, especially when the matter at issue has to do with the migration to digital services from a print background. Prior to setting up his consulting business, Joseph served as CEO of three companies (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Tribal Voice, and SRI Consulting), all of which he led to successful exits. Typically Joseph works on strategy issues, advising CEOs and Boards of Directors on direction; he also has managed a number of sticky turnarounds. Among other things, Joseph has been the recipient of grants from the Mellon, MacArthur, and Hewlett Foundations, all concerning research into new aspects of publishing. @JosephJEsposito | |
| Benedict Evans [More Info] Consultant Enders Analysis Benedict Evans covers mobile content, digital media and electronic publishing for Enders Analysis, a research and consultancy boutique. He has worked in strategy and business development for NBC Universal, Channel 4 and Orange, and previously worked as a sell-side Equity Research Analyst covering European telecoms companies for several investment banks. @BenedictEvans | |
| Kristin Fassler [More Info] Director of Marketing Penguin Random House Kristin Fassler is Director of Marketing at the Random House division of Penguin Random House. In her role at Ballantine Bantam Dell, she oversees the creation and implementation of the consumer marketing and branding strategies for over 200 fiction and nonfiction titles annually, including campaigns for bestselling authors such as Diana Gabaldon, Debbie Macomber, George R.R. Martin, Lee Child, and Tess Gerritsen. | |
| Jean Feiwel [More Info] Publisher, Swoon Reads Macmillan Jean Feiwel has been in children's publishing as long as she or anyone else can remember. A lot of people have referred to her as a legend, which really means she's just older than you are. Mostly what you should know is that she is an Aquarius with Scorpio as her rising sign. That means she's very creative, but unforgiving. | |
| Chris Fischbach [More Info] Publisher Coffee House Press Chris Fischbach is the publisher of Coffee House Press, one of the premier nonprofit literary publishing houses in the country, acting as both its executive and artistic director. He also currently serves on the board of the Friends of the Hennepin County Library and the advisory board of the Soap Factory. He lives in Minneapolis. @Fishmpls | |
| Carol Fitzgerald [More Info] Co-Founder/President The Book Report Network Carol Fitzgerald is co-Founder and President of The Book Report Network (TBRN) --- a group of Internet sites about books and authors that have become the gathering places for a large and devoted community of booklovers since 1996. Programming is organized by demographic at Bookreporter.com, 20SomethingReads.com, Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com and by special interest at ReadingGroupGuides.com GraphicNovelReporter.com and FaithfulReader.com. In addition, the company's Authors on the Web division provides Website Design and Development for authors and publishers. To date the Company has built websites for more than 225 authors and continues to maintain more than 100 websites. | |
| Andrea Fleck-Nisbet [More Info] Executive Director, Digital Publishing Workman Publishing Andrea is the Executive Director of Digital Publishing at Workman Publishing. She oversees digital product and online business development. | |
| Deborah Forte [More Info] EVP/President Scholastic Inc./Scholastic Media Deborah A. Forte is Executive Vice President of Scholastic Inc. and President of Scholastic Media is an innovator and an award winning producer, developer, and designer of multi-platform content that meets the needs of children and families – including software, mobile applications, television, film and digital experiences based on books. Ms. Forte also leads the team that created Storia®, Scholastic’s new eReading platform and eBooks system. Ms. Forte founded Scholastic Media, the only full-scale digital production, branding and merchandising division in the children’s publishing industry, that successfully develops and markets children’s software and content globally. Her software and productions, including such beloved franchises as Clifford The Big Red Dog, The Magic School Bus, I SPY, Goosebumps, have been distributed in over 60 countries and have won hundreds of awards including Emmys, the Humanitas Prize, Peabodys and an Oscar. Ms. Forte is a founding member of the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and served the board of the American Center for Children and Media. | |
| Gavin Fraser [More Info] CEO Small Planet Digital | |
| Kent Freeman [More Info] Chief Operating Officer VitalSource Technologies Kent is the Chief Operating Officer of VitalSource Technologies, Inc. VitalSource is a digital content distribution provider within Ingram Digital, which is an Ingram Content Group Inc. company. Kent has been fortunate to be with Ingram for more than 27 years. Prior positions with Ingram include Senior Vice President for Business Development of Ingram Book Group, Chief Technology Officer of Ingram Book Group, President of Ingram Customer Systems, and President of Ingram Fulfillment Services. Kent has also served as Chair of the Book Industry Study Group, a non-profit organization that provides research and standards development for the book industry, and as Chair of the Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee. | |
| Jane Friedman [More Info] CEO Open Road Media Jane Friedman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Open Road Integrated Media. She was the President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide from 1997 to 2008. | |
| Kelly Gallagher [More Info] Vice President, Content Acquisition North America Ingram Content Group Kelly Gallagher is VP of Content Acquisition for Ingram Content Group. At Ingram, he manages the Content Acquisition publisher team for North America and leads Ingram's selling and business development activities for print-on-demand and digital distribution products. Kelly's previous roles include VP of Publishing Services for Bowker in addition years of publishing and association work. | |
| Irene Gallo [More Info] Associate Publisher Tor.com Associate Publisher of Tor.com | |
| Kasey Gandham [More Info] Co-Founder Packback Books | |
| Ashleigh Gardner [More Info] Head of Content Wattpad Ashleigh Gardner is Head of Content for Wattpad, a global social platform for authors and readers to connect and share stories. Throughout her career, she’s been working at the intersection of literature and technology with past experience as Director of Content Management at Kobo and Manager of Digital Development for Dundurn Press. @AshleighGardner | |
| Noah Genner [More Info] President & CEO BookNet Canada Noah Genner has an extensive background in independent bookselling, software and business development. As the leader of BookNet Canada he orchestrates a skilled team of technical, policy oriented and client focused staff to provide new data management services and supply-chain initiatives to the Canadian publishing and book retail sectors. Before working at BookNet Canada, Noah ran his own technology and software development consulting business, servicing a wide range of clients including book publishers and printers. Prior to that, Noah was Director of Software Development for consumer market research leader Compusense, where he oversaw the development of a variety of software projects used by numerous Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Noah serves on the Board of Directors of the Book Industry Study Group and eBOUND Canada, and is Chair of the ONIX International Steering Committee. | |
| Alan Gershenfeld [More Info] Founder, President E-Line Media Alan has spent the last twenty years at the intersection of entertainment, technology and social entrepreneurship. He is currently Founder and President of E-Line Media, a publisher of digital entertainment that engages, educates and empowers, with a core focus on computer/video games. E-Line works with leading foundations, academics, non-profits and government agencies to harness the power of games for learning, health, and social impact. Prior to E-Line, Alan spent seven years as CEO and Co-Founder of netomat, a leader in mobile-web community solutions. As CEO, Alan helped to transform a network-based art project into a pioneering software company, raising funding from VCs, strategic investors (Motorola, WPP, Forbes), foundations (Rockefeller’s ProVenEx double bottom line fund) and securing clients and partnerships with leading technology and content providers such as Electronic Arts, Warner Brothers, Motorola and Miramax. netomat was selected as a Technology Pioneer at the 2007 World Economic Forum at Davos. | |
| Marjan Ghara [More Info] Founder & CEO BiblioNasium As Founder and CEO, Marjan is the product owner and also responsible for the day-to-day operations of BiblioNasium. She has direct industry experience as an early member of two prior tech startups and knows what it takes to build a company from the ground up. With a multidisciplinary degree that covers management and technology studies from the University of Pennsylvania, she also has a proven track record in building large scale and successful web properties. Marjan loves the energy and excitement of startups and is a relentless motivator. Marjan is also the mother of two elementary school aged children. One of her favorite books is The Little Prince. @gharajm | |
| Neal Goff [More Info] President Egremont Associates, LLC Neal Goff is founder and president of consulting firm Egremont Associates, which assists K-12 and consumer publishing clients with strategic planning, marketing, digital product development, licensing and development of strategic partnerships. A former president of the Board of the Association of Educational Publishers, he is also co-author of the annual State of the K-12 Market report, published by MDR. As a consultant, Neal draws on more than a quarter century of experience as a publishing and direct marketing executive. After starting his publishing career as a newspaper and magazine editor, Neal spent more than a decade at Time Inc., where he held senior positions at Time Life Books and Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC). At BOMC, he led the development and start-up of Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club, which was BOMC’s fastest growing club throughout the 1990’s. He later became President of Simon & Schuster’s direct mail division, Prentice Hall Direct; Chief Operating Officer of database publisher R.R. Bowker; and Senior Vice President of Marketing at BMG Direct, then the world’s largest music club company. In the last decade, Neal has been a leader in educational publishing. He first served as President of Scholastic Library (formerly Grolier Reference) Publishing, and then became President of Weekly Reader Publishing, with P&L responsibility for Weekly Reader’s 12 classroom magazines. At Weekly Reader, his role grew to include managerial responsibility for the company’s Custom Publishing business, library publisher Gareth Stevens Publishing, World Almanac Education Library Services, and the Facts For Learning database business. Neal founded Egremont Associates in 2010. That year, he was elected to the Board of ReadWorks, a non-profit committed to helping teachers address the reading comprehension crisis. He is also on the Advisory Board of Newsela.com, a start-up that uses daily news stories to teach reading comprehension to elementary and middle school students. @nealgoff | |
| Larry Goldberg [More Info] Executive Director of Inventory and Operations Abrams Larry Goldberg is the Executive Director of Inventory & Operations at Harry Abrams Books. Prior to Abrams, Larry performed similar roles at Putnam, HarperCollins, Bookspan and Sony Music. His focus is on developing forecasting tools using both packaged ERP systems and desktop tools. Larry is a Certified Supply Chain Professional through APICS and has a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. | |
| Ashley Gordon [More Info] Vice President, Content and New Media indiCo As VP Content and New Media, Ashley is responsible for developing strategy, identifying partners, and implementing projects related to technology and electronic content in the higher education market, particularly in the areas of course materials adoption, distribution, and access. She established the position for indiCo, a newly formed, for-profit subsidiary of the National Association of College Stores, intended to accelerate the integration of innovation and strengthen the independent college store in the digital age. Prior to joining indiCo, Ashley held leadership positions at SharedBook, Ingram Content Group, and Sprout, an innovator in POD. She is the founder of Mockingbird Publishing, which partners with not-for-profit organizations on book outreach projects, and BookRaft, a nonprofit which provides backpacks, new books, a journal, and pencil pouch to children made homeless through natural disaster or sudden tragedy. | |
| Gus Gostyla [More Info] VP, Business Development Inkling Gus Gostyla is VP of Business Development at Inkling where he is focused on building new partnerships with publishers, distributors, and mobile platforms. Gus has made a career of helping to develop ecosystems around great consumer products and brands. In previous lives he headed BD at Flipboard and held similar roles at Microsoft's Xbox Live and Windows Phone groups, as well as a number of startups in Silicon Valley. A graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont and Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business in New Hampshire, Gus majored in skiiing. | |
| Bradley Graham [More Info] Owner Politics & Prose Bradley Graham is co-owner of Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, DC. He and his wife Lissa Muscatine purchased the store in June 2011 and now manage it fulltime. Previously, Brad spent more than three decades as a journalist with the Washington Post. His assignments included overseas postings in Germany, Poland and Argentina, as well as stints as an economics writer, Pentagon correspondent and editor. He has written two books: a 2009 biography of Donald Rumsfeld (By His Own Rules) and a 2001 account of U.S. efforts to build a national system against ballistic missile attack (Hit to Kill). | |
| Jeremy Greenfield [More Info] Editorial Director Digital Book World | |
| 0 | Gayle Hart [More Info] Content Architect Innodata Gayle Hart joined Innodata in Dec. 2012 as a member of the Content Architect team. She brings a decade of publishing experience to the team, having worked with print, web, and ebook publishing in editorial, production, and operational capacities. She is actively involved in the creation of workflows and processes for print-to-digital and digital-to-print with Innodata's publishing clients. |
| Dan Haynam [More Info] Implementation Manager Inkling As an implementation manager, Dan deploys software and workflow solutions that enable Inkling's publishing partners to build market-ready digital content at enterprise scale. Dan's particular area of expertise is content creation and assembly through Habitat, Inkling's industry-leading cloud-based publishing environment. Prior to Inkling, Dan led EMEA Client Solutions at Medallia, the global customer experience management leader. After co-founding Medallia's London office, Dan helped grow the EMEA region 10x in headcount and revenue over a period of 2 years. An engineer by trade, prior to moving into enterprise software solutions, Dan holds an MS from Stanford University and a BS from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He lives and works in San Francisco. | |
| Laura Hazard Owen [More Info] Book Publishing Reporter GigaOM Laura Hazard Owen is the book publishing reporter GigaOM. She was previously the editor of Publishing Trends, a website and newsletter for the book publishing industry, and before that was an assistant editor at Skyhorse Publishing. She graduated from Harvard in 2006. She lives in Manhattan. | |
| Michael Healy [More Info] Executive Director (Author and Publisher Relations) Copyright Clearance Center Michael Healy (host) is the Executive Director (Author and Publisher Relations) at Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). Prior to joining CCC, Michael was Executive Director of The Book Rights Registry, and previously Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group, a New York-based non-profit body dedicated to improving the efficiency of the book industry by providing standards, research, education and information. Michael has worked in the book industry for more than 25 years and has spent most of that time in senior editorial, sales and distribution roles in digital publishing. He has been closely involved in the development of standards for the international book trade, and is particularly associated with standards for metadata, product information and electronic commerce. Michael has led many international standards groups, was Chairman of the International ISBN Agency, a Director of the International DOI Foundation, and led the international ISO committee that developed ISBN-13. @mjhealy | |
| Jo Henry [More Info] Director Nielsen Book Jo Henry leads the Nielsen Book Research Service, recently acquired from Bowker. Nielsen Book Research monitors the US and UK book markets through Books & Consumers, the premier resource for understanding book consumers and their buying behaviour, as well as undertaking ad hoc research projects for a wide range of clients. Jo Henry started in publishing at Victor Gollancz, becoming Sales Director in 1989 and, after Cassell’s purchase of Gollancz, the Group’s International Trade Sales Director. She left Cassell in 1993 to join the HEA’s Publishing Division as Head of Sales & Marketing, before joining Book Marketing Ltd. in 1995. Following the acquisition of BML by Publishing News, she became Managing Director of the PN Group in 2007. BML was acquired by Bowker in 2010, and in March 2012 was combined with RR Bowker’s consumer research business in the US to become Bowker Market Research. | |
| Justo Hidalgo [More Info] Co-Founder 24symbols Justo Hidalgo is co-founder of 24symbols, a subscription service for ebooks. He teaches Product Strategy and Innovation at post-graduate and executive level in Madrid, Spain, and is a mentor for startups. Prior to 24symbols, Justo was VP Product Management and Consulting at Denodo Technologies, leading worldwide presales and product management. He holds a Ph.D., and an M.S. in Computer Science, and has received training in Product Management, Product Marketing, Innovation and Creativity. @justohidalgo | |
| Pamela Hilborn [More Info] VP, Product & Design Kobo Anthropologist, copywriter, creative director, information architect, designer – whatever the role, Pamela’s interest in human behaviour and culture, combined with her passion for art and design have allowed her to create user-friendly products and engaging experiences. She started her career in UX while at Indigo Books & Music as the Online Director of Customer Experience. At Indigo, she was tasked with designing the experience for a digital venture called ShortCovers – the eReading pilot program that was eventually spun out and rebranded as Kobo. As VP, Product & Design, Pamela built the Kobo UX and Design group from the ground up into an award-winning team of architects, interaction designers, industrial designers, writers and user researchers. | |
| Peter Hildick-Smith [More Info] Founder & CEO Codex Group Peter Hildick-Smith is President of Codex-Group LLC. Founded in 2004, the firm pioneered book audience research. Codex tracks and forecasts digital book trends for book publishers, retailers and technology companies, using quantitative online research as a foundation for business strategy development. The company’s proprietary, digital Book Preview and Author Equity pre-publication market test programs help publishers and authors boost new book discovery, purchase conversion rates, expand audiences and increase sales—supporting the successful publication of numerous New York Times bestsellers. Prior to founding Codex, Hildick-Smith worked at GE Capital Global Consumer Finance, as Chief Marketing Officer, UK, and SVP, Customer Management, North America, supporting clients including Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Exxon/Mobil, Gap, and JC Penney. At Bertelsmann’s Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, he was VP, Merchandising, and VP, Marketing for the Young Readers, School, College and Library businesses. He lectures regularly at The Wharton School, sits on the Wharton Digital Press Board of Advisors, and is a research advisor to the National Endowment for the Arts. He has an MBA in Marketing from The Wharton School (1981), and a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania (1976). | |
| Ted Hill [More Info] President THA Consulting With over 25 years experience in the publishing industry, Ted has launched dozens of new businesses and business initiatives. He has held business development positions at leading companies including Pearson, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Vista (now Publishing Technology), and About.com. As a business development consultant with deep knowledge of the publishing and information industries, client engagements range from raw startups to America’s largest companies including NetGalley, codeMantra, Above the Treeline, Bowker, Ingram, R.R. Donnelley, and Microsoft Corporation. In addition to frequently speaking at industry events on the subject of how new technologies impact the business of publishing, Ted is a long-standing member of the Board of Directors for the Book Industry Study Group. @THAConsulting | |
| Lisa Holton [More Info] President Classroom, Inc. Most recently, Lisa Holton was founder and CEO of Fourth Story Media, a highly regarded digital studio, which produced The Amanda Project, a print and online program of creative writing, reading and art for teen girls. Prior to Fourth Story Media, Holton was President of Scholastic Trade and Book Fair divisions, where her responsibilities included publishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, developing the interactive book and online games series The 39 Clues, and overseeing new digital initiatives for School Book Fairs. Holton was also head of Disney’s Global Children’s Books, overseeing all aspects of the global publishing business. During her nine-year tenure at Disney,she built Hyperion Books for Children, developed English language learning programs and founded Jump at the Sun, an imprint dedicated to African-American culture. As Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, she developed a number of curriculum-based math and literacy programs, including Math Start, and led whole language initiatives in her roles as Marketing Director at HarperCollins and Penguin. Holton is a board member of the New York Women’s Foundation, where she has worked with community-based organizations devoted to economic and social justice for women and girls. She is a trustee of The Carle Museum and is on the advisory board of First Book. She speaks regularly about the intersection of literacy and technology. She holds a B.A. from Colgate University and lives in Brooklyn. | |
| Eric Huang [More Info] Development Director Made in Me Eric Huang is Development Director at Made in Me, an award winning Shoreditch digital agency specializing in children's entertainment and brand development. Starting out at Disney Publishing in LA, Eric moved to Melbourne, Australia, as Managing Editor at Penguin Australia. He then joined Aussie toy company Funtastic's new book division as Publisher, after which he re-located to the UK as Head of Licensing at Parragon. In 2007,Eric took up the role of Publishing Director at Penguin UK's Media and Entertainment division where he looked after Penguin's IP and coproduction businesses. After six years at Penguin Eric moved on to become Development Director at Mind Candy before joining Made in Me. Eric lives in London and is always on the lookout for creative partnerships and ways to tell stories via new media platforms. | |
| Han Huang [More Info] Product Manager, Data Licensing Bowker Han Huang is an experienced product management leader and digital strategist. He joined Bowker in 2013 as Director Product Management for Data Licensing. Prior to Bowker, Han held product management and digital strategy roles at LexisNexis, Reed Business Information, Tribune Company and CNN//Sports Illustrated. Han has an MBA from London Business School and a BA in Music from Sussex University. He lives in Chatham, New Jersey with his wife Pat and two year old son, Nicholas. | |
| Leslie Hulse [More Info] SVP, Digital Business Development HarperCollins Publishers Leslie Hulse is the SVP of Digital Business Development for HarperCollins Publishers where she helps develop digital strategy for HarperCollins worldwide. Leslie has served on the Board of the IDPF from 2011 to 2013. In addition since 2009 she has been a Co-Chair of the Association of American Publishers' Digital Issues Working Group which is a forum for education about digital publishing. In 2009, Leslie was named one of the Top 50 Women in Book Publishing by Book Business Magazine. | |
| François-Xavier Hussherr [More Info] Founder & CEO Gutenberg Technology After a successful track record of 15 years in the Internet industry, Francois-Xavier Hussherr founded Gutenberg Technology. Francois-Xavier holds a PhD in economics (on the business model of the Internet industry). He has conducted some research at MIT and taught in France. Passionate about the Internet, he worked for Wanadoo, the biggest Internet Service Provider in France, and became VP Sales in charge of advertising & paid content services (Wanadoo Portails - now Orange). He then became director of Internet activities for Mediamétrie, the French professional audience measurement and survey company for Television, Radio, Cinema, Internet, cable, satellite and multimedia. As an author, he has written 5 books about the Internet. In 2006, he joined Benchmark Group (12 M of visitors/month) as Associate Director to focus more on the content side of the internet business. Also highly interested in the field of education, he decided to create Gutenberg Technology to provide publishers with an end-to-end streamline solution to publish simultaneously on the web, on tablets, on smartphones and on paper. | |
| Jason Illian [More Info] Founder & CEO BookShout @jasonillian | |
| John Ingram [More Info] Chairman and CEO Ingram Content Group Mr. Ingram joined Ingram Industries Inc. in 1986, serving early in his career as the Assistant Treasurer and also as President of Tennessee Book Company (which became part of Ingram Content Group in 2009). He later served as President of Ingram Book Company, Vice President of Purchasing for Ingram Micro Europe, and Director of Purchasing for Ingram Micro Inc. He has been a member of the Ingram Micro Inc. Board of Directors since 1996. Mr. Ingram is active as a volunteer in a number of educational and charitable organizations. He is the chairman of the board of the Entrepreneur Center. He is a former member of the Board of Trust of Vanderbilt University. He currently serves on the boards of Montgomery Bell Academy and The Harpeth Hall School in Nashville. He is Chair of the Western Governors University Tennessee Advisory Board. He was named by Nashville Mayor Karl Dean as Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Green Ribbon Committee on Environmental Sustainability in 2008-2009. In January 2011 he was Chairman of the Inaugural Committee for Tennessee Governor-Elect Bill Haslam. In addition, Mr. Ingram actively supports Vanderbilt Athletics and Currey Ingram Academy. | |
| Alan Inouye [More Info] Director of the Office for Information Technology Policy American Library Association Alan S. Inouye is the Director of the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) at the American Library Association (ALA), based in Washington, D.C. In addition to his public policy role, Alan leads ALA’s efforts on digital content and libraries, which includes library ebook lending issues. Previously, Alan was the Coordinator of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee in the Executive Office of the President, and a Study Director at the National Academy of Sciences. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. | |
| Sara Ittelson [More Info] Director, Business Development Knewton, Inc Sara is the Director of Business Development at Knewton. Knewton is the world’s leading adaptive learning technology provider with the mission of bringing personalized education to the world. Knewton combines big data with psychometrics to continuously personalize learning experiences. At Knewton, Sara builds strategic partnerships with educational content creators and distributors to deliver their content to students adaptively. Knewton has partnerships with the most highly regarded global publishers including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, Macmillan and Cambridge University Press. Sara earned her MBA and MA in Education from Stanford University, and her BA from Northwestern University. Previously, Sara worked as Chief of Staff to the Chief Performance Officer at the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) where she led continuous improvement projects across the District. Prior to CPS, Sara worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey and Company, doing projects in education, sustainability and business strategy. | |
| Murray Izenwasser [More Info] Co-Managing Partner/Strategy Practice Lead Biztegra With more than 20 years experience, Murray Izenwasser has planned and executed online marketing strategies on behalf of some of the world’s largest and most recognized organizations and brands. Murray is a creative thinker who understands the opportunities presented by the ever-changing Internet marketing landscape. His vast expertise across all interactive disciplines allows him to cut through the clutter of the current ‘hype’ and deliver marketing programs that drive business. Currently recognized as a top Interactive Social Media strategist, Murray has been invited to be a featured speaker at a variety of events and industry forums. His entertaining yet thoughtful presentation style distills esoteric ideas into actionable insights. In 2011, he was named as one of the five Social Media Masters by Social Media Club International. Murray’s pragmatic approach not only comes through in his presentations but also in his work as Strategy Practice Lead for Biztegra, an interactive and social media strategy agency. His focus is on helping Biztegra’s clients drive their businesses by designing appropriate interactive and integrated marketing strategies and tactics to fully engage their customers. His current client list comprises numerous publishers of all sizes across many genres, such as Time, Inc., CRC Press / Taylor and Francis Group, Felony & Mayhem, and Dreamspinner Press. Non-publishing clients include Pepperidge Farm, SeaWorld, Wilson Sporting Goods, Tupperware, ADT, Burger King, Volvo CE, BlueCross BlueShield, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, among many, many others. His previous positions include Global Director of Marketing for Sapient, as well as Director of Client Strategy for Razorfish, two the world’s premier interactive agencies. He began his career as a business/management/technology consultant for Andersen Consulting (Accenture). He graduated (with honors) from the University of Florida, with dual majors in Computer Science and Finance. @Murrayiz | |
| Anna Jarzab [More Info] Digital and Social Marketing Manager Penguin Random House Anna Jarzab is the author of All Unquiet Things, The Opposite of Hallelujah and Tandem, the first book the Many-Worlds Trilogy. She lives in New York City and works in children’s book publishing. @ajarzab | |
| Jess Johns [More Info] Director of Operations The Idea Logical Company Jess Johns has been Mike Shatzkin's right hand at The Idea Logical Company since the first Digital Book World in 2010. She manages Idea Logical's day-to-day operations and coordinates the conference programming efforts for DBW and Publishers Launch Conferences. She works closely with the company’s clients and partners to deliver quality, value, and insight across all their conferences and consulting projects. Jess’s background is in data and analysis, art and photography, early education, and literacy development. She is a proud alumna of Brown University, a former AmeriCorps member, a sci-fi/fantasy geek, and a devoted aunt. | |
| Rick Joyce [More Info] Chief Marketing Officer Perseus Books Group Rick is the Chief Marketing Officer for the Perseus Books Group, and has been involved since 2004 in the growth and digital strategies for the company. Rick is one of the co-creators of Constellation, the one-stop digital solution for independent publishers, and serves on its Leadership Team. He was the force behind the BEA 2009 experiment known as Book:The Sequel crashing a book in all formats from the show floor, and the pioneering NY Times Bestseller and transmedia sensation Cathy’s Book: If Found, Call 650-266-8233. Rick has also been the producer of enhanced books and apps like JFK:50 Days and Roots: The Enhanced Edition. Prior to Perseus, Rick was a strategy partner at Accenture, working in publishing, music, magazines and newspapers for clients like Simon & Schuster, Viacom, Harper Collins, Houghton Mifflin, Tribune Corp, the AAP, Primedia, and Disney. Rick was VP of Strategy and Marketing at ASCAP, and a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton in their Media practice. Rick has a B.A. from Dartmouth College, and MBA from Columbia and an MFA from the New School. @rickjoyce | |
| Jean Kaplansky [More Info] Digital Content Solutions Architect Aptara Jean Kaplansky is a Solutions Architect at Aptara, which provides digital publishing solutions to content providers for capitalizing on new digital and mobile mediums. Jean is an avid reader and early adopter of eBooks and eBook-related technology, going back to 1996. Her publishing production past includes work as an XML Architect for Cengage Learning, a Systems Analyst for Pfizer Global Research and Development, and an XML Consultant at Arbortext. Jean’s introduction to typography and publishing production involved a calculator, some printed galleys, and a pica stick back in 1992. @JeanKaplansky | |
| Steve Kasdin [More Info] Director of Digital Strategy Curtis Brown Steve Kasdin joined Curtis Brown in 2012 as Director of Digital Strategy. He supervises Curtis Brown’s eBook program, consulting with Curtis Brown’s agents in developing custom digital opportunities for their clients with eBook publishers and digital retailers. Previously on the Kindle team at Amazon.com, Steve has been in the publishing business for over 20 years. He has served as Marketing Director at St. Martin’s Press, Scholastic and Harcourt, as an agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, and as a buyer for Barnes & Noble. | |
| Bill Kasdorf [More Info] Vice President, Content Solutions Apex CoVantage Bill Kasdorf, General Editor of The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing, is Vice President and principal consultant of Apex Content Solutions, a leading supplier of data conversion, editorial, production, and content enhancement services to publishers and other organizations worldwide. Active in many standards initiatives, Bill serves on the IDPF Working Group developing the EPUB 3 standard (he was coordinator of its Metadata Subgroup and is now active in the Indexing Working Group); the IDEAlliance working group developing the nextPub PSV source format for magazines and other design- and feature-rich publications (chairing its Packaging PSV as EPUB Committee); he is Chair of the BISG Content Structure Committee; and he is a member of the Publishing Business STM/Scholarly Advisory Board and the NISO eBook SIG. Past President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) and recipient of SSP’s Distinguished Service Award and the IDEAlliance/DEER Luminaire Award, Bill has led seminars, written articles, and spoken widely for publishing industry organizations such as SSP, O’Reilly TOC, NISO, BISG, IDPF, DBW, AAP, AAUP, ALPSP, STM, Seybold Seminars, and the Library of Congress. Most recently, he is the author of the chapter on EPUB metadata and packaging for O’Reilly’s EPUB 3 Best Practices. In his consulting practice, Bill has served clients globally, including large international publishers such as Pearson, Cengage, Wolters Kluwer, and Sage; scholarly presses and societies such as Harvard, MIT, Toronto, ASME, and IEEE; aggregators such as CourseSmart and netLibrary; and global publishing organizations such as the World Bank, the British Library, and the European Union. | |
| Susan Katz [More Info] President, Children's Publishing HarperCollins Publishers @susankatz | |
| Roy Kaufman [More Info] Managing Director of New Ventures Copyright Clearance Center Roy Kaufman is Managing Director of New Ventures and is responsible for expanding service capabilities as CCC moves into new markets and services. Prior to CCC, Kaufman served as Legal Director, Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. He is a member of the Bar of the State of New York and a member of, among other things, the Copyright Committee of the International Association of Scientific Technical and Medical Publishers and the UK's Gold Open Access Infrastructure Program. He formerly chaired the legal working group of CrossRef, which he helped to form, and also worked on the launch of ORCID. He has lectured extensively on the subjects of copyright, licensing, new media, artists' rights, and art law. Roy is Editor-in-Chief of Art Law Handbook: From Antiquities to the Internet and author of two books on publishing contract law. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and Columbia Law School. | |
| Peter Kay [More Info] Infinite Fermata | |
| Vince Kellen, Ph.D. [More Info] Senior Vice Provost & CIO University of Kentucky Vince Kellen, Ph.D., is the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning, Analytics & Technologies at the University of Kentucky, one of the top public research institutions and academic medical centers in the U.S. Dr. Kellen brings a rare combination of business, academic and IT architecture experience to his role, with a focus on transformational leadership within IT. Dr. Kellen is a senior consultant and Business Technology Council member with the leading IT industry think-tank, Cutter Consortium, where he writes on business and IT strategies. Dr. Kellen also speaks nationally and internationally on IT strategy topics. Since 1998, he has served as a faculty member and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on IT and strategy, enterprise architecture, and information systems. In his role, Dr. Kellen leads a staff of 275 supporting 28,000 students, 18 colleges, and 13,000 employees, and manages the planning of and support for IT strategic planning, enterprise software, high performance computing, learning spaces, classroom technology, learning management systems, business intelligence, student information systems, data center operations, network infrastructure, distance learning, and information technology support. Dr. Kellen serves on advisory boards to top IT companies, including Dell, AT&T, Apple and Blackboard, and co-hosts with IT futurist Thornton May, a regional Kentucky CIO forum called The CIO Practicum. Dr. Kellen is a recipient of the coveted CIO Magazine Top 100 award in 2007, a 2012 Dell Transformational CIO award, author of four books on database technology, and author of more than 200 articles and presentations on IT and business strategy topics. Dr. Kellen earned his Ph.D. in computer science from DePaul University. @vkellen | |
| Chris Kenneally [More Info] Director, Business Development & Author Relations Copyright Clearance Center At Copyright Clearance Center, Christopher Kenneally works with his Business Development colleagues to help the company attract new customers and achieve greater penetration in existing markets. He has forged partnerships with technology providers, professional associations, and media organizations, among others. In addition, Kenneally is host/producer of CCC’s weekly podcast series, “Beyond the Book.” As a freelance journalist, Christopher Kenneally reported on education, business, travel, culture and technology for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and The Independent of London, among many other publications. He also reported for WBUR-FM (Boston), National Public Radio, and WGBH-TV (PBS-Boston). He is author of “Massachusetts 101” (Applewood Books), a history of the state “from Redcoats to Red Sox” (www.mass101.com) @beyondthebook | |
| Brian Kenney [More Info] Library Director White Plains Public Library Kenney is the director of the White Plains Public Library. A longtime book reviewer, Kenney has chaired the ALA’s Notable Books Council and is joining the 2013 committee of ALA’s Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. As editorial director of Reed Business Information's publishing group, Kenney also served as editorial director of Publishers Weekly from 2009-2010, before Reed Elsevier divested the division. Before joining the publishing world, Kenney worked for several New York City libraries, with his longest stint with the Brooklyn Public Library, where he eventually managed the Central Library. “As much as my career has had a plan, I always intended to return to work in libraries,” said Kenney. At White Plains, Kenney is overseeing a multi-year renovation project “that is as much a chance to recreate library service as it is to update a great building." | |
| Chris Kerr [More Info] Owner Parson Weems LLC Chris Kerr is a 37-year book-publishing veteran who has held sales and marketing management positions with Oxford University Press, Blackwell Publishing, Little, Brown & Company/Time-Warner, Houghton Mifflin, and Walden Books. In 1997, he founded Parson Weems, a freelance sales company promoting trade and scholarly presses to Northeast bookstores. | |
| Donna Ketler [More Info] Director, Content Management & Technology John Wiley and Sons | |
| Sanj Kharbanda [More Info] VP, Digital Strategy Houghton Mifflin Harcourt @sanjjk | |
| Chris Kitchener [More Info] Group Product Manager Adobe Systems Incorporated Chris Kitchener is a Group Product Manager at Adobe, responsible for the InDesign and Illustrator family of products. Chris drives the development of some of the industry's leading print and digital publishing tools – from print to tablet, web, mobile and beyond. Chris speaks regularly at industry events on a variety of publishing topics, including authoring tools, workflow productivity, and the future of print and digital publishing. | |
| Arthur Klebanoff [More Info] CEO RosettaBooks Arthur Klebanoff, the CEO of RosettaBooks, is also the owner and president of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency and has been a leading literary agent and influential presence in the publishing industry for over 35 years. He has represented a broad range of authors and publishing programs, including Michael Bloomberg, Sidney Sheldon, Bill Bradley, Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Judith Krantz, Richard Nixon, Civil War artist Mort Kunstler, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (for whom he worked in the White House between college and law school), and the Mayo Clinic. Klebanoff is a graduate of Harvard Law School (Law Review, 1972) and Yale University (where he won the Alpheus Henry Snow Prize for "inspiring in his classmates an admiration and love for the best traditions of high scholarship"). He is an advisor to the award-winning, not-for-profit Youth Communication, which creates short, nonfiction stories that appeal to hard-to-reach teens. Klebanoff is also the author of the book The Agent: Personalities, Politics and Publishing (2002). | |
| Skott Klebe [More Info] Product Evangelist Copyright Clearance Center Skott Klebe (presenter) is Product Evangelist at Copyright Clearance Center, and has worked in copyright and licensing technology for more than fifteen years, leading the development of some of the largest licensing systems in the world. Skott was the architect of RightsLink, Copyright Clearance Center’s point-of-content licensing system, and is the inventor on several patents in the fields of content and licensing. He speaks regularly at publishing industry events on topics including copyright, technology, and disruption in the ebook marketplace. @skottk | |
| Sanders Kleinfeld [More Info] Publishing Technology Engineer O'Reilly Media Sanders Kleinfeld is Director of Publishing Technology at O’Reilly Media, where he is currently building an automated XHTML5-source toolchain for generating print and digital book formats. He also focuses on R&D around next-generation workflows and ebook content for O’Reilly and its publishing partners. Sanders is the author of HTML5 for Publishers (O’Reilly, 2011). @sandersk | |
| Martin Klopstock [More Info] Digital & Operations Director Kogan Page Ltd. Martin Klopstock has worked in Professional and Higher Ed publishing for 25 years with a range of publishers including Taylor & Francis and Pearson Education. He is currently Digital and Operations Director at Kogan Page, an independent business publisher. He has held senior management roles in the areas of product development and production; content management; workflow and asset standards. More recently he has been focused on the seamless integration of internal business systems with the data and asset requirement of third party supply chain partners. He believes that developing and maintaining rigorous asset and metadata standards is essential to a smooth functioning of an increasingly global supply chain, and that the publishing industry needs to invest in automation of these processes and workflows. | |
| Anne Kostick [More Info] Principal Foxpath IND Anne Kostick is a UX fan girl and a partner in Foxpath IND, specializing in the transition to and from traditional content publishing and online content development, management and publishing. Her clients include trade book publishers; technology and financial services websites; and arts and cultural institutions. Anne’s column, Digital Reading, discusses UX and related topics in ebooks and digital reading. Anne is emerita president of Women’s Media Group, program director for the Digital Book Awards 2014, and on the advisory board of BookExpoAmerica conference 2014. She is the author of several books for children and a definitive collection of jokes. @bklynanne | |
| Carl Kulo [More Info] US Market Research Director Nielsen Book Carl Kulo is US Director of Research, Nielsen Book. Mr. Kulo’s role includes management of Nielsen Market Research (formerly a product of RR Bowker), a recognized leader in plotting trends that impact organizations serving book consumers. Specifically, he oversees the Books and Consumer research panel, reaching more than 70,000 US book consumers annually, where he collaborates with teams of researchers to monitor and analyze market movement and the digital transformation in the book market. Mr. Kulo also manages the primary research projects for specific segments with the book industry, including genre-specific projects, and projects with individual publishers, author groups and outlets. Among the initiatives is a multi-year project with the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) to benchmark student attitudes toward content in higher education and consumer attitudes toward both e-devices and digital content. Prior to joining Bowker, Mr. Kulo was Director of Market Research for Wiley Higher Ed, where he ran qualitative and quantitative research studies for the editorial, sales and marketing groups. | |
| Brandi Larsen [More Info] Book Country Director Penguin Random House It's true. I've spent my career helping the journalism and publishing industries adapt to the ever-changing digital world. It is an amazing and humbling transformation. While I define myself as a writer -- someone who loves words and how they string together -- my strongest skills are my abilities to find the gaps where things could be done better and then to create the methods that bring those ideas to life. I love solving problems. I'm curious about many things in the world around me. I'm interested in designing solutions that people love and am really excited about my newest project. I moved to New York to take on the role of Book Country Director. Book Country is an incredible site for writers. Come join me -- we'll workshop together, ask the questions we need to know as we set our own path to publishing. Fun facts about me: I have a BA in fiction writing summa cum laude from Columbia College Chicago. I'm a proud Communication Arts graduate of the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in Palm Beach County, Florida. I've been lucky enough to study improvisation with the nation's best. My dad and I wrote a book together when I was in high school because I dared him. A newspaper published my first story when I was 12. I finished three half-marathons by walking one and running the others very, very slowly. I am still working on that first novel. Stuff I love: media, innovation, cool tech, typewriters, photography, my incredibly supportive family, the arts, finishing a run, delicious meals, sweet wine, laughter, big ideas, good writing and, of course, happiness. | |
| Stephen Laster [More Info] Chief Digital Officer McGraw-Hill Education Stephen J. Laster was appointed chief digital officer of McGraw-Hill Education in August 2012. He is responsible for creating compelling student experiences, and developing breakthrough teaching and learning solutions. Prior to joining McGraw-Hill Education, he led Intelligent Solutions, LLC, a firm that engages with universities and businesses to leverage their digital technology and collaborative tools. At the same time, he served as the chief information and technology officer of the Harvard Business School and as a member of the HBS administrative leadership team, overseeing the school’s academic, research and administrative computing teams. Mr. Laster taught courses at the undergraduate, graduate level and executive/ professional level in technology leadership, problem solving, software design, and eLearning product development. Prior to joining Harvard, Mr. Laster held several leadership positions at Babson College including chief technology officer for Babson's for-profit eLearning company and director of Curriculum Innovation and Technology. Earlier, Mr. Laster held leadership positions at a number of companies where he was responsible for information technology, technology product development, and major re-engineering and implementation efforts. He is a former trustee of Babson College and is on the board of the Sloan Consortium for Online Learning. Mr. Laster holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and a MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. | |
| Gordon Laws [More Info] Senior Vice President Datamatics-PMG Gordon Laws is Senior Vice President at Datamatics-PMG, a services, technology, and consulting company to the content industry. He leads the company's product and business development efforts and has helped navigate the company through numerous technology changes. In particular, he is a specialist in forecasting, prediction, and product development. Most recently, Datamatics-PMG has advanced the science of predicting academic and job performance among students and prospective employees through cutting-edge assessment tools. | |
| Matt LeBlanc [More Info] Director of Digital Workflow and eBooks F+W Media, Inc. Matt LeBlanc is the Director of Digital Workflow and eBooks at F+W Media. He has spent many years creating and managing print production workflows in the commercial print, packaging and publishing industries, before focussing on eBook development. Most recently he has been developing a cutting edge XML based content management system. | |
| Doug Lessing [More Info] President Firebrand Technologies Doug Lessing is President of Firebrand Technologies, a software and services company founded in 1987 dedicated to providing solutions for book publishers. Joining Firebrand in 1990, Doug has worked through the thorniest of publisher issues, often going well beyond technology to solve them. As President, Doug’s mission is to ensure that the Firebrand Community is being well served by providing leadership and solutions to enable the continued success of publishing. In this role, he is given the opportunity to preach often about Title Management, Digital Publishing and the Firebrand philosophy. | |
| Rebecca Levey [More Info] Co-Founder KidzVuz.com Rebecca Levey is a co-founder of KidzVuz.com, a video review site by and for tweens. She writes about technology and education at Beccarama and is a White House Champion of Change for Education. @beccasara | |
| Michael Levine [More Info] Founding Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center Sesame Workshop Dr. Michael H. Levine is the Founding Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, an independent non-profit organization based at Sesame Workshop. The center conducts research, and builds multi-sector partnerships to scale innovation and investment in promising educational media technologies for children. Prior to joining the Center, Michael served as Vice President for Asia Society, managing the global nonprofit’s interactive media and educational initiatives to promote knowledge and understanding of other world regions and cultures. Michael previously oversaw Carnegie Corporation of New York’s groundbreaking work in early childhood development, educational media, and primary grades reform and was a senior advisor to the New York City Schools Chancellor, where he directed dropout prevention, afterschool, and early childhood initiatives. Michael has been a frequent adviser to the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, writes for public affairs journals, and appears frequently in the media. He was named by Working Mother magazine as one of America’s most influential leaders in family and children’s policy and serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including Classroom, Inc., Forum for Youth Investment, We Are Family Foundation, PBS’ Next Generation Learning Media, and Journeys in Film. Michael received his Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University’s Florence Heller School and his B.S. from Cornell University. | |
| Dana Lindsay [More Info] Manager - Content Process & Training Team Inkling Dana Lindsay manages the Content Process & Training team at Inkling. Since January 2012, her team has trained Inkling’s global network of Service Providers, defining production workflows and content conventions that enable partners to create great content at scale. Over the past two years, the Content Process team has overseen the production of over 700 Inkling titles and reduced average title production time from 10 weeks to 2 weeks. Prior to Inkling, Dana earned her Master’s degree in sociology with a focus on social inequality. | |
| Alvina Ling [More Info] Executive Editorial Director Little, Bown Books for Young Readers Alvina Ling acquires children’s books for all ages (baby-teen), with a particular interest in literary middle grade and young adult fiction and books with multicultural themes. She is interested in both genre (including science fiction, fantasy, and mystery) and contemporary fiction, and is a fan of beautiful and/or funky picture books with unique illustration styles, as well as trade nonfiction books. Some of her recent publications include the New York Times bestselling picture books Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, illustrated by Ed Young and The Curious Garden by Peter Brown; Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld; Newbery Honor winner Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin; Eggs by Jerry Spinelli, Edgar Award winner The Postcard by Tony Abbott; Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass; North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley; Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey; and Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick. Before starting at LBYR in 1999, Alvina was a bookseller at Barnes & Noble, an intern at the Horn Book, and a life-long lover of children’s books. @planetalvina | |
| Simon Lipskar [More Info] President Writers House Simon Lipskar is President of Writers House, a leading literary agency in New York. As an agent, he represents a wide range of writers, including many major bestselling and award-winning authors in literary and commercial fiction, narrative nonfiction, and fiction for young readers. | |
| Jane Litte [More Info] Founder Dear Author Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty. | |
| David Liu [More Info] COO Knewton As Chief Operating Officer since 2010, David Liu is responsible for helping Knewton scale its platform and operations while expanding its presence globally. He oversees the company's technology, product management, design, marketing, communications, finance and business operations functions.Previously, David served as AOL's Senior Vice President of Global Messaging, where he rebuilt and launched an open global messaging platform for AIM and ICQ; founded and grew AOL.com into one of the top web portals in the world; and founded and grew Lifestream into one of the largest social aggregators of content on the web. Together David and his teams created web products and communications platforms that have served over 100 million users worldwide. Prior to AOL, David served as a management consultant for A.T. Kearney advising Fortune 500 companies on corporate and operating strategy. David currently serves on the board of Knewton and has been a board advisor/angel investor to Assistly, ChatID, and several other tech startups. He has been awarded a U.S. patent for web-based content personalization. David received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. | |
| Jeff Livingston [More Info] SVP, Education Policy and Strategic Alliances McGraw-Hill Education Jeff Livingston is Senior Vice President of Education Policy and Strategic Alliances for McGraw-Hill Education. Mr. Livingston joined McGraw-Hill Education in 2004, serving as the Senior Vice President of McGraw-Hill School Education’s College and Career Readiness Business. Prior to McGraw-Hill Education, Mr. Livingston spent time as a successful entrepreneur, specializing in instructional technology and marketing to urban school systems. He also served as Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer of Achieva.com, where he helped to build the largest provider of online test prep and college prep for American high schools. Mr. Livingston serves on the Boards of the Association of Educational Publishers, the Education Division of the Association of American Publishers and the Education Division of the Software and Information Industry Association. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Government and Economics from Harvard University. | |
| Cindy Loh [More Info] Publishings Director Bloomsbury Children's Books Cindy Loh is Publishing Director of Bloomsbury Children's Books and Walker Books for Young Readers in the US. Previously she was Editorial Director of Sterling Children's Books where she launched Splinter, their YA fiction imprint, with four New York Times bestsellers. Prior to Sterling, she was VP, Editorial, for Scholastic and has held management roles in the children's divisions of Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Random House. | |
| Daryl Lubin [More Info] Vice President, Digital Program and Portfolio Management McGraw-Hill Education Daryl Lubin is the Vice President of Digital Program and Portfolio Management at McGraw-Hill Education (MHE). In this role, Daryl is responsible for the successful and timely delivery of MHE’s digital products and platforms through her leadership of the Digital Program Management Office. Her expertise is in implementation of portfolio governance, project management processes and resource capacity optimization. Prior to this, Daryl worked at HarperCollins Publishers where she also implemented and managed the Enterprise Project Management Office. Daryl spent many years as an operational and IT strategy consultant at Booz & Co. and Accenture and is certified as both a Scrum Master and Project Management Professional. | |
| Miles Ludwig [More Info] Managing Director, Content Innovation Lab Sesame Workshop | |
| Michelle Luhtala [More Info] Library Department Chair New Canaan High School @mluhtala | |
| Matt MacInnis [More Info] Founder & CEO Inkling Matt MacInnis is an entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Inkling. He founded Inkling with a mission to transform how people learn and share knowledge through the power of software and technology. Having grown Inkling from an early-stage startup to a fast-growing enterprise, Matt continues to lead the company's now 100+ employees in pursuit of that mission. Already, Inkling's cloud-based platform, Inkling Habitat, is quickly becoming the standard for how complex content can be turned into rich, interactive reading experience for mobile and web. Matt has spoken at dozens of industry conferences including O’Reilly’s Tools of Change, TEDx Talks, D: All Things D Conference, and Digital Book World. Inkling has been featured as a startup to watch in publications such as USA Today, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg Businessweek. He’s also an investor and advisor for several Bay Area startups including Clever, Notion, Thumbtack and Zenefits. A native of Nova Scotia, Canada, Matt attended Harvard University where he earned degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mandarin Chinese. He spent eight years at Apple, helping to lead the company's expansion into the education markets around the globe, before he founded Inkling. Both Matt and Inkling are based in San Francisco, CA. | |
| Phil Madans [More Info] Director, Publishing Standards and Practices Hachette Book Group As Director of Publishing Standards and Practices for the Hachette Book Group, Phil Madans applies his expertise in editorial-production workflows to identify, evangelize and implement new technology solutions for content creation, repurposing and discovery. He also directs Hachette’s title metadata optimization program, which has earned Hachette the BISG Gold Product Data Certification Award for the last two years. A long-time member of the Book Industry Study Group, Phil is chair of its Identification Committee, serves on its Coordinating Council and overseas HBG’s participation in the organization. A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Phil has contributed to Publishing Research Quarterly and the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Independent, and has taught Digital Publishing at NYU’s School of Continuing Professional Studies. In September 2013, Phil received the first annual BISG Friend of the Industry Award. | |
| Gita Manaktala [More Info] Editorial Director MIT Press Gita Manaktala is Editorial Director of the MIT Press, a publisher of cutting-edge scholarship in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. She oversees the acquisition of about 200 new book projects each year in 16 major subject areas. Until 2009, she served as the press’s Marketing Director with responsibility for worldwide promotion and sales of the press’s titles. Gita helped to develop CISnet, an online collection of the Press’s computer and information science titles, and E-books at the MIT Press, an online bookstore. She is an active member of the Association of American University Presses and teaches in the popular Books Boot Camp workshop offered by the Association of American Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division. @sylviamath | |
| Brenda Marsh [More Info] Consultant Clinton Street Consulting Brenda Marsh is a publishing and bookselling senior executive working as a consultant. Her most recent position was VP Author Relations at Barnes & Noble, Inc. Prior to that, she served as VP Content and Merchandising at bn.com. Ms. Marsh has over two decades of experience in sales and market development for the publishing industry. She served as President of Sales and Market Development for the general books group of Harper Collins and prior to that she held sales leadership positions at Viking Penguin and St. Martin’s Press. | |
| Ron Martinez [More Info] Founder Aerbook.com Aerbook Maker was founded by Ron Martinez, an inventor with a long resume including the impressive title of vice president, Intellectual Property Innovation for Yahoo. @ronmartinez | |
| Stacey Matthias [More Info] Co-CEO Insight Strategy Group Having grown up largely in the back of a VW van, Stacey’s intuitive understanding of how different people think and live was ingrained at an early age. A human developmental expert by training, Stacey’s specialty is in uncovering what motivates people to change, a skill that she has leveraged in countless studies on fast-moving targets, like fashionistas, culture vultures, media junkies, techies, and trend-conscious youth. Her approach is energetic, honest, and thorough. As the head of Insight Kids, Stacey enjoys an unmatched reputation in the children’s space for her inspired ability to spark insights from kids of all ages and turn those insights into actionable and impactful recommendations for clients. Her work with kids, parents, and educators helps to inform development of TV shows, toys, websites, software, games, movies, and experiences of all kinds. An adroit communicator, Stacey ensures that clients achieve their research objectives, using hands-on immersion to help them implement study results and see the range of possibilities of how to move forward. She is a master in helping others brainstorm and focus, drawing on years of experience developing methods and techniques that both engage and inspire. Stacey launched Insight Research Group with Boaz Mourad in 1998, after several years at Sachs Insights and ARC, and also stints as a Head Start classroom teacher and an educational software developer for HyperStudio, one of the first producers of multimedia software for kids. When not working, she unwinds through yoga and meditation. Stacey and Boaz live in lower Manhattan with their two daughters. | |
| Kim Mazyck [More Info] Manager of Montezuma Publishing San Diego State University Kim Mazyck is the Manager of Montezuma Publishing (MP), the custom publishing business located on the campus of San Diego State University. They publish print and digital custom course materials for SDSU and many other colleges and universities. Additionally, MP formats, reviews and publishes all thesis/dissertations for the graduate students at SDSU. Kim earned a BA in Communications from Bowling Green State University. She has spent the last 25 years working in various aspects of the publishing industry, with 15 years devoted to Art Publishing. Just prior to working at MP, Kim owned and operated an art publishing company specializing in African-American Art. Kim has extensive experience in creating new business, customer service, sales, and copyright clearance. Although never on her radar, Kim has found working on a college campus and managing Montezuma Publishing to be one of the most rewarding experiences in her career. | |
| Peter McCarthy [More Info] Founder McCarthy Digital Peter McCarthy is a multi-channel marketer with 15 years experience in publishing, working in roles from Editorial to IT, from Design to Marketing. A former executive with Penguin and Random House with a focus is emerging digital businesses and marketing innovation, he recently founded the consultancy McCarthy Digital. @petermccarthy | |
| Liisa McCloy-Kelley [More Info] VP, Director eBook Development & Innovation Penguin Random House Publishing Group Liisa McCloy-Kelley is responsible for the overall eBook specifications for Random House and R&D on furthering what is possible for eBooks. Her team is focused on creating cutting edge experiences for a variety of genres that have content that is beyond 1-color basic text- incuding Kids, Cooking, Poetry, Travel, Education and other illustrated genres. They work closely with engineering teams and industry standards to continue to push what is possible and develop best practices for the industry. They also work closely with our publishing groups and their editorial and design teams to develop unique digital editions that have the character of the print product but the best experience for their digital editions. | |
| BIll McCoy [More Info] Executive Director IDPF Bill is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the IDPF, the global trade and standards organization for digital publishing. An experienced manager and entrepreneur, Bill most recently served as General Manager, Digital Publishing at Adobe Systems Incorporated. Bill previously served two terms on the IDPF Board of Directors, playing a key role in the development of the IDPF EPUB standard, and has been actively contributing to the development of EPUB3, the forthcoming major revision to the standard. @billmccoy | |
| Nick McIntosh [More Info] Senior Product Manager App Annie As Senior Product Manager, Nick McIntosh oversees the Analytics and Store Stats products at App Annie. These products are used by more than 170,000 app and book professionals including HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Google, Microsoft, Disney. Nick has held a variety of roles across the mobile and tech industry at companies such as Interactive Minds and The Hive Networks. He holds a Bachelor of Information Technology Society degree from the University of Queensland. | |
| Kristen McLean [More Info] Founder & CEO Bookigee.com Kristen McLean is the founder and CEO of Bookigee.com, an innovative early-stage tech venture in the publishing industry. Before founding Bookigee, Kristen was the Executive Director of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), a non-profit trade association that networks the children’s book industry. In 2011, ABC merged with its larger sister association, the American Bookseller’s Association where its work on behalf of children’s booksellers continues. Prior to ABC, Kristen spent twelve years in the book and toy industry in a wide range of roles from frontline retailing and commission sales, to trade marketing for a major US publisher. As part of her role as an industry strategist, Kristen lectures nationally and internationally on issues facing the publishing world including the effect of technology and culture on books and reading, the role of bookstores and libraries in the lives of 21st century readers, and new models for the Publishing Industry. Bookigee represents the synthesis of more than a decade of thinking about new paradigms for books and content. You can find out more about her including her writing and presentations at www.kristenmclean.org | |
| Sarah McNally [More Info] Owner McNally Jackson Books | |
| James McQuivey [More Info] Vice President, Principal Analyst Forrester Research James serves CMOs. He is the foremost analyst tracking and defining the power and impact of digital disruption on traditional businesses. His consumer models identify the ways consumers have embraced digital experiences and platforms, and his strategy models help companies prepare to serve those consumers. Though he applies this knowledge to a wide variety of industries, he spends the majority of his consulting time with consumer media and consumer electronics companies that are at the forefront of dealing with digital disruption. In February of 2013, James published his book "Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation." Previously at Forrester, James served as a vice president and research director, running Consumer Technographics® North America, Forrester's unparalleled consumer research effort. Before that, he was a senior analyst and founding member of the online retail strategies practice at Forrester. In addition to keynoting at industry events and Forrester Forums, James is routinely sought after for comment by such publications as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He also appears frequently on NPR and CNBC. James comes to Forrester most recently after teaching marketing research and media management at Boston University's top-rated College of Communication. In addition, he has served as research director at WGBH in Boston and as a graduate fellow at Syracuse University. James earned his Ph.D. in mass communication research at Syracuse University. He also holds an MBA with an emphasis in marketing. | |
| Ken Michaels [More Info] Global COO Macmillan Science and Education In his role as Chief Operating Officer, which he took up in August 2013, Ken is responsible for supporting Macmillan Science and Education’s new business structure and for ensuring global operational excellence. He previously served for over four years as President and Chief Operating Officer at Hachette Book Group. Before joining HBG, Ken spent 12 years in various Executive Management roles in the Media, Education and Corporate Offices for the McGraw-Hill Companies; prior to that he spent twelve years at General Electric in various Executive and Senior Management roles in both the GE Manufacturing and the GE Capital sides of the conglomerate with assignments in U.S and international locations. In 2009, Ken joined the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), serving as Co-Chair, and became Chairman in September 2012. Ken holds a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, an MBA, and is a graduate of GE’s Financial Management Program. | |
| Sarah Mlynowski [More Info] Author Don't Even Think About It SARAH MLYNOWSKI is the author of nineteen books for tweens, teens and adults, including the upcoming DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT from Random House, the Whatever After series from Scholastic, TEN THINGS WE DID (AND PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE) from HarperCollins, SEE JANE WRITE: A GIRL’S GUIDE TO WRITING CHICK LIT from Quirk and MILKRUN from Harlequin. Her books have more than 3 million copies in print, and have been translated into twenty-seven languages and optioned to Hollywood. Sarah started her career in the marketing department of Harlequin, and has embraced every sort of social media tool – from her own website to Instagram, Wattpad, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, Google Plus, and even, once upon a time, MySpace. You can visit her at http://www.sarahm.com . @SarahMlynowski | |
| Mary-Alice Moore [More Info] VP, Editorial Director Book Publishing, Boyds Mills Press and Highlights For Children Mary-Alice is the editorial director, Book Publishing, Boyds Mills Press and Highlights for Children. She manages the New Products production and staff at the Highlights editorial offices in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, developing new book products and programs for continuity book clubs, retail, and other trade channels. Previously, Mary-Alice held editorial management roles at HarperCollins and Scholastic, Inc. In her most recent role as vice president of New Product Development for Scholastic, she provided strategic oversight of all new product and new business development initiatives for Scholastic At Home. Early in her career, Mary-Alice managed a children’s bookshop. She later acquired hands-on experience with kids as a director of a child-care center for a community agency in Connecticut. In 2006, HarperCollins published her first children’s picture book, The Wheels on the School Bus. | |
| Sean Moss [More Info] Digital Marketing Officer Walker Books Sean is responsible for Walker Books’ digital communications, including company websites, online advertising and social media management. Together with the marketing and PR teams, he works on integrated digital campaigns for key authors and brands, including bestselling YA authors Patrick Ness and Cassandra Clare. | |
| Mary Ann Naples [More Info] VP, Publisher Rodale As VP/Publisher of the Books Group at Rodale, Mary Ann oversees the North American trade and direct book publishing operations, including editorial, marketing, and distribution channels. She also collaborates with Rodale’s award-winning brands, including international editions, to expand the scope of the Rodale Books list into new areas. @manaples | |
| Edward Nawotka [More Info] Founder, Editor-in-Chief Publishing Perspectives Ed Nawotka is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. an online magazine for the international publishing industry that has been called "the BBC of the book world." Prior to launching Publishing Perspectives, Ed served as books columnist for Bloomberg News and daily news editor at Publishers Weekly. He serves on the International Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Book Fair and continues to contribute reviews and commentary to a wide variety of publications, at home and abroad. | |
| Charles Nix [More Info] Partner Scott & Nix Charles Nix is the son of a printer. He studied art, design, and typography at The Cooper Union, and has designed hundreds of books and a handful of typefaces. For more than twenty years, he has taught at the Parsons School of Design, where he also served as Chairman of Communication Design. He is Chairman emeritus of the board of the Type Directors Club, an international organization dedicated to furthering typographic excellence. He is currently a partner at Scott & Nix, a publisher of science and nature titles. He enjoys wrestling with complex data sets, and is dedicated to bringing quality typography to both print and screen. | |
| Jonathan Nowell [More Info] President Nielsen Book Jonathan Nowell is President of Nielsen Book, part of The Nielsen Company. Nielsen Book operates in the US, UK, and other several countries and includes the ISBN Agency for UK & Ireland, the SAN and ISTC Agencies, BookData, BookNet and BookScan product groups. These brands provide market leading information and transaction services to booksellers, publishers and libraries worldwide. Prior to his appointment to his current role in 2002, Jonathan was Managing Director of Whitaker, the UK based book information group and Publisher of The Bookseller. Jonathan’s current responsibilities include the strategic development of the Book information businesses of The Nielsen Company. | |
| David Nussbaum [More Info] Chairman and Chief Executive Officer F+W Media, Inc. David Nussbaum was the Chief Executive Officer of Penton Media Inc. from 2004 through the sale of the Company to Prism Media Holdings in February 2007. Previous to that, he was the Executive Vice President at Penton since 1998. Nussbaum’s background includes the launch and acquisition of many iconic business media brands including New Hope Natural Media, Mecklermedia, PC Expo, Commercial Property News, among many media properties in the print, event and emedia communities. Prior to joining F+W, Nussbaum formed Sundance Business Enterprises a joint venture with ABRY Partners, LLC, to seek digital media and information/communication services acquisitions. Nussbaum sits on the advisory board of Boston University’s School of Communications, and Metamorphic Ventures, a leading early stage technology venture firm; and is a Board Member for Thomas Nelson Publishing and Summit Business Media. He has been named one of MIN’s Most Intriguing People, and as ‘Industry Influencer’ on the FOLIO: 40. F+W Media, Inc. is a community-focused, content creator and marketer of products and services for enthusiasts. The Company offers a diversified portfolio of books, ebooks, magazines, events, competitions, ecommerce, education, video, and more. www.fwmedia.com. @Dnussbaum | |
| Paul O'Neill [More Info] Production Developer Sourcebooks Paul develops solutions for print and digital products at Sourcebooks, including staff tools and new product development at scale. He has worked in schema design and content architecture for 14 years. Paul assists industry groups, service partners and manufacturers in an effort to define capabilities and best practices for the industry. Paul's goal is to utilize web technologies to enhance the user experience for digital products across platforms. | |
| Tim O'Reilly [More Info] Founder & CEO O'Reilly Media, Inc. Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. Over the years, Tim has built a culture where sustainable innovation is a key tenet of business philosophy. His active engagement with technology communities both drives the company's product development and informs its marketing. Tim is on the board of Safari Books Online and is a partner in O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. Tim graduated from Harvard College in 1975 with a B.A. cum laude in classics. His honors thesis explored the tension between mysticism and logic in Plato's dialogues. Any discussion of Tim is incomplete without a fuller understanding of the company he founded. O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, research, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly has been a chronicler and catalyst of leading-edge development, honing in on the technology trends that really matter and galvanizing their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. Publisher of the iconic "animal books" for software developers, creator of the first commercial website (GNN), organizer of the summit meeting that gave the open source software movement its name, leader in Gov 2.0 "government as a platform" efforts, and prime instigator of the DIY revolution through its MAKE magazine and Craftzine.com, O'Reilly Media continually concocts new ways to connect people with the information they need. @timoreilly | |
| Phil Ollila [More Info] Chief Content Officer Ingram Content Group Phil Ollila is Chief Content Officer of Ingram Content Group Inc., the leading provider of full-service content distribution solutions for the book industry. Mr. Ollila is responsible for Ingram Content Group’s publisher facing business, and has been instrumental in leading the transformation of Ingram from a traditional wholesale service provider, into a fully integrated and relevant solutions company for clients. Ingram combines wholesale distribution, print-on-demand, digital distribution, inventory management and comprehensive worldwide services for physical and digital content. In his role as Chief Content Officer, Phil leads a number of Ingram business units including wholesale merchandising, Lightning Source, Ingram Publisher Services and digital distribution through CoreSource®. Mr. Ollila also heads Ingram Content Group marketing. Mr. Ollila previously served as Senior Vice President of Ingram Book Group Inc., President of Ingram Publisher Services Inc., and as President of Ingram Library Services Inc. Prior to joining Ingram, Mr. Ollila spent 12 years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Borders Group. His last position with Borders was Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising. Mr. Ollila spent 16 years in active and reserve positions with the U. S. Army. He received his master of business administration degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. | |
| Brad Parsons [More Info] Director of Culinary Marketing Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Brad Thomas Parsons is the author of Bitters: A Spirited History of a Classic Cure-All, which was the winner of the James Beard and IACP Cookbook Awards, and a finalist for the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. Parsons received an MFA in writing from Columbia University, and his work has appeared in Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, and Imbibe, among others. Parsons is a member of the James Beard Foundation, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and the Southern Foodways Alliance. A former bookseller, Parsons was a longtime senior books editor at Amazon.com where he managed the Cooking, Food & Wine category, and has worked at Grand Central Publishing and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where he is currently the Director of Culinary Marketing. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit www.btparsons.com @BTParsons | |
| Patricia Payton [More Info] Senior Manager, Publisher Relations and Content Development Bowker Patricia Payton, Senior Manager of Publisher Relations and Content Development for Bowker, is responsible communicating metadata requirements and best practices to publishers of all sizes. Patricia has experience in retail bookstores as well as international markets. She also holds a Master’s degree in Library Information Science specializing in Digital Libraries as well as an MBA. She actively contributes to BISG, AAP, and other industry committees. @Metadata24X7 | |
| Clare Peeters [More Info] VP, Managing Director - Corporate Development Axel Johnson Clare Peeters joined Axel Johnson, a family-run direct investment company, in 2012. She is involved with evaluating new investment opportunities and providing strategic and operational support to existing portfolio companies as well as guiding the group’s corporate development team. Prior to joining Axel Johnson, Clare worked on the business side of the consumer trade book publishing industry for 12 years, first for Random House Inc. and Random House UK and subsequently for The Perseus Books Group, in a variety of corporate development, business development, and operating capacities. Prior to her career in book publishing, she was a consultant for The Monitor Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands, working across a range of industries including animal health pharmaceuticals and the electronic provision of government benefits. | |
| Jack Perry [More Info] Owner 38enso Inc. Jack W Perry is owner of 38enso Inc, a consulting firm helping publishing transition to digital. Over the past five years, Perry has consulted with over 20 different companies including Fortune 500 corporations, publishers of all sizes, literary agencies and numerous start-ups. Prior to being independent, Perry was a Sales and Marketing executive at Random House, Scholastic and Sourcebooks. He has an MBA from University of Connecticut and degrees in Finance and History from the University of Missouri. He also blogs for DBW. @38enso | |
| Randy Petway [More Info] Chief Operating Officer Publishing Technology As Chief Operating Officer, Randy leads the advance Division in its strategic development to ensure the continued growth and market leadership for Publishing Technology’s print and digital publishing operations solution. Prior to the merger between VISTA and Ingenta to form Publishing Technology, Randy held several management level positions at VISTA, with responsibility for professional services and product development. With more than 15 years of industry experience, he has had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s leading trade, academic, and educational publishers. Randy also spent nearly 10 years working in the financial industry. @publishingtech | |
| Chad Phelps [More Info] Chief Digital Officer F+W Media, Inc. Prior to joining F+W, Phelps served as Vice President of the online division of CK Media, based in Golden, Colorado. CK Media owns and operates magazines and events in the crafts space, including Creating Keepsakes, formerly a division of PRIMEDIA. For five years prior, Phelps worked alongside David Nussbaum and acted as Group Director for Penton Media. He was named Chief Digital Officer in September, 2011. | |
| Carolyn Pittis [More Info] Managing Director Welman Digital LLC Carolyn Pittis has 25 years of experience defining and deploying digital technologies to increase business efficiencies and effectiveness. She specializes in digital readiness assessments, organizational design, business process engineering, and using analytics to solve common challenges in media organizations. She defines and implements operating metrics and builds cross-functional peer-led teams designed for agile and rapid execution. Prior to joining Welman Digital, Carolyn was SVP, Publishing Transformation at HarperCollins Publishers, where she was responsible for leading internal publishing teams to develop new capabilities and processes to drive editorial and marketing excellence. Carolyn has held a wide variety of senior management roles working closely with CEOs, executives, and technologists, including positions in strategy, marketing, sales, web development, operations, digital asset management, business development, and managing editorial. Carolyn is a frequent media industry speaker on the topic of technology-driven change, and has taught in the Yale, New York University, Columbia University, and Pace publishing programs. She is on the Advisory Board of Digital Book World. @carolynpittis | |
| Christopher Platt [More Info] Director of BookOps New York Public Library Christopher Platt has worked in the library industry for over 20 years. He first joined New York Public Library in the mid-90’s, progressing from there to join Bakery & Taylor’s Collection Development department to help libraries big & small across the U.S. manage collection development projects. This experience served him well when he accepted the role of Collection Development Coordinator for Queens Library and later returned to NYPL as Head of Acquisitions. From there he helped coordinate the integration of, and rose to lead, the combined branch and research technical services units in a purpose-designed Library Services Center in Long Island City. Now, he is excited to lead the new selection-to-shelf collaboration between NYPL and Brooklyn Public Library called BookOps, acquiring books & media in all formats for 150 library locations across 4 boroughs of New York City. @kkersplat | |
| Hal Plotkin [More Info] Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education United States Department of Education Hal Plotkin is the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education, which has responsibility for all federal U.S. higher education policies and programs. Plotkin was appointed to his position in the Obama administration in July 2009. Prior to his appointment to the Obama administration, Plotkin was a Silicon Valley-based journalist and commentator whose published and broadcast work often focused on technology, business, public policy, education and science. He was a founding editor of public radio's Marketplace program and a former columnist for CNBC.com and SFGate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle. Plotkin has written more than 650 articles for a wide variety of publishers, including Barron's Online, Inc. magazine, FORBES.ASAP, Harvard Business School Publishing, California Business, San Jose Metro, Family Business and International Business magazines. | |
| Kimberly Potvin [More Info] Director of Content Acquisition and Intellectual Property Practices Cengage Learning Kimberly Potvin is the Director of Content Acquisition and Intellectual Property Practices at Cengage Learning and is responsible for the strategy and workflow development of rights acquisition processes for digital first products and rich media assets. She has over 15 years of experience in photography, digital asset management, rights acquisition and intellectual property. Kimberly holds a Master of Fine Arts in Photography and is currently finishing her third year towards a Masters of Intellectual Property. | |
| John Prabhu [More Info] VP, Solutions Architect SPi Global John Prabhu has 19 years of experience in developing solutions through all stages of the publishing cycle. John’s focus has been in developing a unified approach to print-digital publishing and operational workflow strategies around eBook / XML production, semantic coding and enrichment, CMS / LMS and customer back-office support. John is a member of the IDPF working group evolving EPUB3 specifications and IMS Global Consortium (Common Cartridge & QTI standards) towards Educational Technology industry. As the Vice President, Solutions Architect at SPi Global, John is focused in developing new services and products; implementing models for simultaneous digital publishing workflows with a goal of ensuring customer voice integrated to product development. | |
| Dominique Raccah [More Info] CEO & Publisher Sourcebooks Innovative book entrepreneur Dominique Raccah is the founder of Sourcebooks, where she serves as publisher and CEO. She is fascinated by the transformation of the book and wonders whether digital books might well be changing everything. | |
| Nora Rawlinson [More Info] Founder and Editor EarlyWord.com Nora Rawlinson is the founder and editor of EarlyWord.com, a web site created to bridge the worlds of libraries and publishing. As a librarian, she was head of buying for Baltimore County [MD] Public Library. She was also editor of Library Journal and Editor-in-Chief of Publishers Weekly, where she brought PW into the developing digital world by creating one of the first Web sites as well as the first email newsletters in the publishing business. | |
| Jeanenne Ray [More Info] Senior Marketing Manager John Wiley and Sons | |
| Joe Regal [More Info] CEO Zola Books Regal co-founded Zola Books in 2011 as the first truly integrated social eBook retailer, creating an alternative ecosystem that empowers writers, publishers, independent booksellers, and curators. Zola is an open-platform retailer that carries books from most major publishers and makes them available on all web-enabled devices, including the Nook, iPad, Kobo, and yes, most Kindles. Zola Books is social media custom tailored by and for book lovers. It promises to open an inclusive literary conversation in a way the internet has not yet witnessed, and we’re excited to take part. | |
| Carolyn Reidy [More Info] President & CEO Simon & Schuster Carolyn Reidy was named President and CEO of Simon & Schuster, Inc. in January 2008. In this role she is responsible for all the publishing and operations of Simon & Schuster’s numerous divisions, including Adult Publishing, Children’s Publishing, Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. Under her leadership, Simon & Schuster has taken an industry leading position in bringing its works to consumers using new digital formats and distribution capabilities, including ebooks and enhanced ebooks. Reidy has also led the company’s entry into several groundbreaking digital ventures with external partners, including the launch in February 2013 of Bookish, an industry-wide book discovery and marketing site, and the 2012 launch of Archway Publishing, a self-publishing service provider. | |
| Chantal Restivo-Alessi [More Info] Chief Digital Officer HarperCollins Publishers Chantal Restivo-Alessi is the Chief Digital Officer for HarperCollins Publishers, leading the overall global digital strategy for the company. She manages the commercial relationships with existing and new digital partners to grow digital revenues worldwide. She works with each division around the world, and is member of the company’s executive committee. She was appointed to this role in May 2012. Restivo-Allessi has extensive expertise in strategy development and execution, as well as change management in the media space. She has held numerous senior strategy positions and has more than 20 years of international media management experience. She joined HarperCollins from ING Bank in London, where she was Head of Media Corporate Finance. In addition, she has worked at Aegis Group PLC in senior strategy and operational roles, EMI music, and Booz & Company. Restivo-Alessi is fluent in six languages, holds an MBA from Columbia University, a Masters in Foreign Trade and International Marketing from ICE Italian Institute, and a Laurea (MA) in International Political Sciences from University of Rome. | |
| Lucille Rettino [More Info] Vice President, Director of Marketing Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division Lucille Rettino is the Director of Marketing for Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Publishing. She is responsible for cross-imprint marketing initiatives and acts as key liaison between the sales force and the marketing and publishing staff. She is also involved in marketing campaigns for high profile authors including Ellen Hopkins, Cassandra Clare, Jodi Picoult, and Richard Paul Evans. At S&S Lucille launched Pulse It, an online social networking site for teens. She has also spearheaded a number of digital initiatives focused on building communities of readers. Lucille has been in publishing for 20 years working in both adult and children’s marketing. | |
| Andrew Rhomberg [More Info] Founder Jellybooks.com Andrew Rhomberg is the founder of London based Jellybooks, a start-up focused on book discovery solutions for readers and discoverability tools for authors and publishers. Jellybooks has been developing a new “Tools for Authors” solution with support from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board that it will be showing to selected individuals at DBW. Andrew is a veteran of over 8 tech start-ups including txtr, Skype (now part of Microsoft), gate5 (now Nokia Maps) and has worked across the content (music, radio, publishing, location based content) and consumer electronics industries (hardware) since first being exposed to the web as a MIT graduate student in 1993. @arhomberg | |
| Marianna Ricciuto [More Info] Digital Commerce Manager & Online Marketer Harlequin Teen Marianna Ricciuto is the Digital Commerce Manager at Harlequin. Having worked in a variety of roles at Harlequin over the past 7 years, Marianna’s experiences range from retail marketing and product management to digital marketing and e-commerce. | |
| Thomas Riendeau [More Info] Director of Business Development Jouve North America Thomas Riendeau was recently named Director of Business Development for Jouve North America. Tom is responsible for collaborating with customers in the education and trade sectors to develop innovative solutions for products across the spectrum from print to hybrid to digital. With over 20 years of publishing experience and the academic background of an educator, Tom combines expertise in K20 education with the insights of a digital solutions evangelist. | |
| David Roland [More Info] Chief Venture Capital Officer Ingram Content Group David Roland is Chief Venture Capital Officer for Ingram Content Group. Mr. Roland leads Ingram Content Group’s investment activities which include identifying and providing early stage funding for emerging technologies and services that are core to Ingram’s businesses. In addition, Mr. Roland leads Ingram Content Group’s merger and acquisition activities. David joined Ingram Book Group in 2000 as Assistant Vice President and Assistant General Counsel. In 2002, David was named Vice President and General Counsel for Ingram’s print-on-demand business unit Lightning Source. In 2005 he added the role of General Counsel for Ingram Digital Group, Ingram’s digital solutions business unit that included Ingram’s educational content delivery platform Vital Source Technologies, Inc.. Most recently, David held the role of Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Legal Officer for Ingram Content Group. Prior to Ingram, Mr. Roland practiced with the Nashville firm Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald, specializing in corporate mergers and acquisitions work. Before relocating to Nashville, Mr. Roland held the position of General Counsel with Braun Intertec Corporation, an engineering and environmental consulting company. | |
| Emanuel Rosen [More Info] Author The Anatomy of Buzz Emanuel Rosen is the author of the national bestseller “The Anatomy of Buzz” (Doubleday, 2000) and “The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited” (Doubleday, 2009). His next book, "Absolute Value" (with Itamar Simonson), will be published in January 2014. Prior to writing these books, he was VP Marketing at Niles Software where he was responsible for launching and marketing the company’s flagship product EndNote which spread to a large extent by word of mouth. It was during this time that Rosen became interested in buzz and especially in how it can be accelerated. He started his career as a copywriter in Israel. For his work in advertising he won the Bronze Lion from the Cannes International Advertising Festival, as well as several national awards including two gold medals. He holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco and lives in Menlo Park, California. The Anatomy of Buzz “has managed to generate quite a bit of buzz itself” as BusinessWeek noted. The book hit The Wall Street Journal’s business best-seller list and is now available in 12 languages. @EmanuelRosen | |
| Bill Rosenblatt [More Info] President GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies Bill Rosenblatt is president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies (www.giantstepsmts.com), a consulting firm whose clients include content providers and digital media technology companies. His areas of expertise include content management, cross-media strategy, and rights technologies. GiantSteps’ clients have included publishers, digital media technology vendors, and content service providers ranging from early stage startups to Global 500. Bill is author of the book Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology (John Wiley & Sons, 2001) and a guest lecturer on digital copyright at leading universities and law schools. He publishes the blog Copyright and Technology (www.copyrightandtechnology.com ). | |
| Jade Roth [More Info] Chief Product Officer, Digital Education; Vice President, Books & Digital Strategy Barnes & Noble College As Chief Product Officer for Digital Education, Jade is responsible for product direction, management and design for all digital education products. As Vice President for Barnes & Noble College, her responsibilities include overseeing the higher education course materials businesses for nearly 700 Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, the consumer book business, author promotions and government affairs. A Barnes & Noble employee since 1980, Jade began her career as a part-time student and has held many positions within Barnes & Noble. Jade has served as trustee on the board of the National Association of College Stores and was a member of the Penn State World Campus Advisory Board. She has spoken at numerous education and industry conferences, both regionally and nationally. Jade has a B.A. from Bennington College. | |
| Vivienne Roumani [More Info] Director Vivienne Roumani is an independent producer/director, having directed and produced the documentaries “The Last Jews of Libya” and “Out of Print”. She brings to “Out of Print” a unique perspective gained as a director of the Library of Congress and the UC Berkeley Library, where she led digitization projects. | |
| Richard Rubin [More Info] Executive Director, Editorial & Content Re-engineering Programs Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Richard began his tenure at Wolters Kluwer in February 2013. He leads the editorial units responsible for content creation, enrichment and treatise editing for CCH and Aspen products. Richard is also a leader in content re-engineering initiatives to drive greater enrichment, re-use and event-driven processes. | |
| Margot Sage-EL [More Info] Owner Watchung Booksellers | |
| Adam Salomone [More Info] Associate Publisher The Harvard Common Press Adam Salomone is the Associate Publisher of The Harvard Common Press, a Boston-based independent focused on cookbooks. Related to this vertical, Adam oversees the company’s digital strategy across individual book/author brands as well as across the entire organization. Digital initiatives currently underway include exploration of enhanced ebook and mobile platform applications to development of new business partners online involving content distribution and partnership. He has been involved in a number of outreach efforts related to digital innovation, having written for the IBPA Independent and Publishers Weekly, while also participating in speaking engagements at Digital Book World, Techmunch Food Blogger Conference, and most recently is organizing a conference on the future of the cookbook three hour symposium on the present and future state of the cookbook for The International Association of Culinary Professionals. @AdamSalomone | |
| Penny Sansevieri [More Info] Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, Inc. Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Social Media/Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of twelve books, including How to Sell Your Books by the Truckload on Amazon and Red Hot Internet Publicity, which has been called the "leading guide to everything Internet." AME was the first book marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through The Virtual Author Tour™, which strategically harnesses social networking sites, Twitter, blogs, book videos, and relevant sites in order to push an author’s message into the online community. AME has had eleven recent books top bestseller lists, including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at www.amarketingexpert.com. | |
| Kim Schefler [More Info] Partner Levine Plotkin & Menin, LLP | |
| Shira Schindel [More Info] Content Acquisitions Manager Qlovi | |
| Nathan Schultz [More Info] Chief Content Officer Chegg Nathan Schultz serves as Chegg's Chief Content Officer. He has been working with higher education publishers and suppliers and retailers for over a decade. Prior to joining Chegg, Nathan has spent time working in several sectors of the publishing industry, and he was responsible for developing the business intelligence tools used by higher education publishers for monitoring sales and adoption trends. Before joining Chegg, Nathan worked at Bowker as the Business Intelligence Product Manager. Before Bowker, he served as the Director of Business Development for Monument Information Services, and has held Marketing Manager roles at both Pearson Higher Education and Jones & Bartlett Publishers. He attended Elon University in North Carolina, receiving his BA in History and English and continued his education at Stevens Institute of Technology, in New Jersey. | |
| Meredith Schwartz [More Info] Senior Editor, News & Features Library Journal Meredith Schwartz is the Senior Editor, News & Features, of Library Journal. She’s spoken at Tools of Change on libraries as an engine of discovery for consumer book purchases and at the Charleston Conference on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). | |
| Don Seitz [More Info] SVP of Business Development Author Solutions, Inc. Don is Senior Vice President of Business Development at Author Solutions LLC, a Penguin Random House company. In this role, Don leads the company’s initiatives in forging strategic partnerships on a global basis with publishing and media companies in the self-publishing market. He is also responsible for relationships with industry-leading partners in publishing, marketing, and distribution. Prior to joining Author Solutions in 2009, Don held executive COO/CEO roles at a number of venture capital- and private equity-funded companies, following a 10-year career at IBM. His experiences and skills span general and sales management, product management, corporate strategy, and business development. He sits on several non-profit advisory boards, including the Wake Forest University Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship program. Don holds a BA degree in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. | |
| Phil Sexton [More Info] Publisher Writer's Digest Phil Sexton is the Publisher of Writer’s Digest. For more than 25 years, he has worked in the book business, serving in numerous roles, including Vice President of Sales for F+W Media, Sales Director of Adams Media, Director of Merchandising for United Magazine Company and – perhaps most importantly – Independent Bookseller. He is the author of A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS, LEGENDS OF LITERATURE, and THE WRITER’S LAB. He is also the co-author of THE WRITER’S BOOK OF MATCHES. He is the co-founder and co-editor of the much loved (and sorely missed) literary journal Fresh Boiled Peanuts. @psexton1 | |
| Lorraine Shanley [More Info] President Market Partners International Lorraine Shanley is a principal of Market Partners International, a consulting firm that specializes in traditional and digital publishing in the US and internationally. Her expertise includes market research, development and planning; multi-channel marketing, distribution and fulfillment, and executive search. | |
| Mike Shannon [More Info] Co-Founder Packback Books Packback offers students a financially-viable "pay-per-use" model for students to rent digital textbooks, along with tapping publishers into the "used-book market" and presenting a platform to push super-adaptive. Mike graduated from Illinois State University in 2012. As a student, he became highly frustrated with the astronomical textbook prices he encountered each semester. Once realizing that he was not alone in feeling a lack of necessity for the text, he formed Packback LLC with two partners and won 1st place in Illinois State's annual entrepreneurship contest. | |
| Sameer Shariff [More Info] Founder & CEO Impelsys Inc. As the founder and CEO of Impelsys Inc., Sameer drives Impelsys' business vision, strategy, value and growth. Impelsys is his second start up and he has grown the company into a leader in online content delivery for the global publishing market. Impelsys' products and services help over 300 publishers with their online content delivery strategy. Customers include major publishers Reed Elsevier, McGraw Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Thomson, Springer, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to smaller publishers Marshall Cavendish, Benchmark Education and Prufrock Press. The first company that Sameer founded was Medsite Inc. As Chief Strategic Officer and Executive Vice President of Sales, he helped Medsite become one of the largest Internet pharmaceutical marketing companies in the United States. Mr. Shariff was instrumental in guiding Medsite during its early period of financial and organizational growth. Under his strategic direction, Medsite grew to include more than 200 employees and increased in sales from $0 to over $20 million. In 2006, Medsite was sold to WebMD for over $ 40 Million. Sameer is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his BS degree in Entrepreneurial Management from the Wharton School of Business. He has served as a guest speaker at several industry events including Delhi Book Fair - India, Bologna Children's Book Fair - Italy, Abu Dhabi International Book Fair - UAE, O'Reilly TOC Conference - New York, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)- New York, Digital Book World - New York, Klopotek - Berlin, Association of Educational Publishers Summit - Washington, Digital Publishing Asia Pacific - Beijing, and American Medical Publishers Association - Pennsylvania, Professional Scholarly Publishing Conference - Washington; and has been featured in Forbes, India Today, CMS Wire, Professional Publishing Report, Gilbane, Seybold Report and Silicon India among other publications. | |
| Matthew Shatz [More Info] Head of Strategy and Partnerships Oyster @mattshatz1 | |
| Mike Shatzkin [More Info] Conference Council Chair, Founder & CEO The Idea Logical Company Mike Shatzkin is a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry. Mike has been actively involved in trade book publishing since his first job as a sales clerk in the brand new paperback department of Brentano’s Bookstore on Fifth Avenue in 1962. In his nearly 50 years in publishing, he has worked in all aspects of the industry: writing, editing, agenting, packaging, selling, marketing, and managing production. His insights about how the industry functions and how it accommodates digital change form the basis of The Idea Logical Company’s consulting efforts. Mike is well known for having introduced the concept of “verticality” — or subject-specific publishing — as a way to think about the digital transition. In speeches going back to 1995, he has told publishers to understand their core propositions and fundamentals — balancing the content and market equations — and presciently told them to resist and be very careful about seductive opportunities that might be blind alleys: CD-Roms in the 1990s and enhanced ebooks in the current era. At BookExpo America in May of 2007, Mike delivered a speech called “The End of General Trade Publishing Houses”, laying out the reasons why the approach to publishing that had worked so well to build major businesses in the 20th century would soon falter and eventually fail. He predicted then (and earlier) that specialist publishers would thrive by building direct relationships with audiences and that the biggest general trade houses would find that extremely difficult to do. Mike has organized conferences, spoken to industry groups, and worked with leading publishers, suppliers and trading partners across the globe. His blog, The Shatzkin Files, is one of the most closely-watched ongoing commentaries on digital change in trade publishing. Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and of BaseballLibrary.com. He has four decades of experience as a published writer and working in all aspects of the publishing industry – writing, editing, agenting, selling, marketing, and managing production. He is well known for providing insight into the knottiest questions of the industry, old and new, in a career that began with a summer job on the sales floor of the brand new paperback department of Brentano’s Bookstore on 5th Avenue in 1962. Two issues have been on the front burner of Mike Shatzkin’s career over the past 10 years. His initiatives concerning the way books get onto retailers’ shelves carry forward ideas developed over 50 years by his father, Leonard Shatzkin. And Mike has been at the forefront in the discussion of how the print publishing world can address the many challenges posed by digital change. Even before Mike Shatzkin graduated from UCLA in 1969, he had a variety of experiences in the publishing world. He first wrote for pay in the 1950s, covering local sports for a weekly community newspaper. His summer job at Brentano’s in 1962 was followed by stints in the order processing department at Random House in 1966 and developing a new scheduling system for a book jacket printer, Longacre Press, in 1967. Mike got his first publishing sales experience managing commission reps for a small company established by his father in 1968. Right after leaving UCLA, Mike published his first book. “The View from Section 111”, published by Prentice-Hall in the Fall of 1970, which was a “fan’s diary” of the New York Knickerbockers first NBA championship season. During the same period, Mike recorded two record albums of his own material, produced by the lengendary R&B figure, J.W. Alexander. After two years of involvement in George McGovern’s presidential campaign, Mike got involved in the family publishing businesses in 1972. For nearly two years, he was a production manager, coordinating the relationships with all the suppliers providing composition, paper, printing, and binding to the clients of Planned Production, which included Times Books, Greenwood Press, and Paddington Press. For five years beginning in 1974, Mike was the Director of Sales and Marketing for Two Continents. In that capacity, he sold books in all channels, worked in publicity and rights, and worked as a liaison with many of the company’s 100 (or more) distribution clients in the small publisher communities of the US, UK, and Europe. During that period, Mike had his first experience with “vendor-managed inventory” in the book business when Two Continents successfully managed such a program in more than 500 accounts across the United States. Mike’s consulting career, which led to the founding of The Idea Logical Company, Inc. began in 1979. At first, the company’s services were focused on helping smaller publishers improve their distribution relationships with larger publishers. In time, the breadth of Mike’s experience across the entire publishing value chain led to providing help to larger companies. In one 4-year period in the late 1980s with John Wiley & Sons, Mike worked on separate projects for the sales department, a fledgling audio division, marketers in both trade and technical areas, editors, and the Canadian company during a period when the company was expanding out of its historical base of technical publishing into more general interest areas. Mike also was active as an author in the late 1980s. His “Baseball Explained” was published by Pelham, a division of Penguin, in the UK for the British market. He collaborated with Jim Charlton to produce two editions of “The Baseball Fan’s Guide to Spring Training” for Addison-Wesley. And in 1990, William Morrow published “The Ballplayers”, a monumental work that was to become the basis some years later of a whole new business. Thirty-five thousand copies of the original Morrow edition of “The Ballplayers” were printed and distributed within three years of its publication. The book is more than 3/4-of-a-million words of baseball history, organized under more than 6,000 proper nouns and illustrated with 500 photographs. It was the first baseball “encyclopedia” in the traditional sense of that word. By 1994, it was out of print and rights had reverted from Morrow to Mike. By the winter of 1995-1996, Mike was already beginning to make a name for himself discussing the transition to digital delivery of published material. In the summer of 1995, in the middle of what was a short-lived and very expensive CD-rom “craze” in the trade publishing community, Mike made a speech for VISTA Computer Services conferences in New York and London in which he decried the trend, predicting (accurately) the imminent reality that CD-rom products would, for the most part, fail and the future for publishing would be online. Then, in December 1995, “The Ballplayers” was introduced to Rick Wolf of a fledgling Florida operation called Sportsline USA. Wolf saw the immediate value in building internal hyperlinks for “The Ballplayers” and mounting it as an online product. This was the start of BaseballLibrary.com, which was hosted by CBS Sportsline for five years through the end of the 2001 baseball season. By mid-2002, under the direction of Editor-in-Chief James G. Robinson, who came to The Idea Logical Company originally as Mike’s administrative assistant, BaseballLibrary had grown to more than 20,000 pages and more than 3 million words. Its structure – an A-to-Z “data dictionary” provided originally by “The Ballplayers” and a “day-by-day” account of baseball history built around Jim Charlton’s “Baseball Chronology” and a growing set of tools to manage the integration of vast amounts of relevant outside content – demonstrated a model for “future publishing”. And they provided a laboratory where Mike’s observations about how publishing is changing could be refined and tested. Throughout the quarter-century of Mike’s consulting career, he has continued to explore the question of better management of inventory in bookstores. The opportunities inherent in a historically-inefficient distribution system were a central concern of Leonard Shatzkin, Mike’s father, throughout his six decades in the industry. Len Shatzkin applied the first vendor-managed inventory system in the book business, The Doubleday Merchandising Plan, in the mid-1950s. Mike picked up some of the techniques working for his father at Two Continents in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, Mike persuaded the Turner family, owners of the tiny Under Cover Books chain in Cleveland, to cease title-by-title buying and to manage performance by sales rep using profitability measures instead. For a year or so, the store provided reps with printouts showing their books’ activity and expected the reps to use that data to keep their store stocked. Although the experiment was ahead of its time – the primitive personal computer capabilities of the time made the data distribution just too inefficient to support the technique – it was probably the first time profitability measures were used on a wide scale to measure the effectivness of book distribution. The data from the study provided important grist for analysis by Leonard Shatzkin, which he published in an article in Publishers Weekly and within the pages of his seminal study of the publishing business, “In Cold Type”, which was issued by Houghton Mifflin in 1982. In the late 1990s, VMI for books took a giant step forward when, under Mike’s direction, the publishers of Butterick Patterns formed Soho Publishing to distribute the books of all publishers into the women’s hobby store market they already served. The flagship client became JoAnn Stores, which Soho has been stocking with about 2000 titles in 1000 outlets since 1999. All the stocking decisions are made by a VMI program originally developed under Mike Shatzkin’s direction, and since refined by Soho. The program enables automated decisions on every title for every store for weekly shipments, with constantly-improving efficiency. Also in the late 1990s, Leonard Shatzkin worked out a sophisticated VMI system aimed at the more complex challenges faced by bookstores stocking tens of thousands of titles obtained from multiple sources of supply. Before his death in May of 2002, Leonard managed to get the system beta-tested at one of America’s premier independent bookstores, Northshire in Manchester Center, Vermont. After he died, Shatzkin’s widow, Eleanor Shatzkin, and his daughter, Nance Shatzkin, tried to commercialize the system. But the consolidation that had already occurred in the independent bookstore market diminished the potential client base for the system and the effort did not bear fruit. The experiences Mike Shatzkin had with inventory management, enhanced by the capabilities being developed at Shatzkin Systems, led to a whole new practice specialty for The Idea Logical Company in 2002: helping publishers improve the performance of their inventory at Barnes & Noble, to the benefit of both the publishers and the bookseller. By early 2004, more than a dozen publishers were applying the techniques Idea Logical has developed to analyze B&N POS data and improve their sales while lowering returns. In 2003, Idea Logical started providing applying its account-specific data warehouse technique and accompanying reports as a service, allowing all publishers to do at a manageable monthly cost what had previously only been available to the biggest publishers making 7-figure investments. The pioneering work Idea Logical did with its reports, called Supply Chain Tracker, lives on in the systems of many of its fomer clients, including Hachette Book Group and Chronicle Books. Mike’s work on VMI and baseball history aside, he is still best known as one of the industry’s most provocative observers, a stage of his career that began when he co-organized the first two high-profile conferences on “Electronic Publishing and Rights” in 1992 and 1993. During the late 1990s, he always delivered the “vision” speech at VISTA’s “Publishing in the 21st Century” conferences; he also served as co-chair of their informal “think tank”: The VISTA Editorial Board. In 2000, Mike co-organized the Publishing 2010 conference at the London Book Fair and in 2001 he conceived and ran the “Big Questions” conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair, including participation from several of the leading publishing trade magazines from around the world. In the past two years, Mike conceived and created industry projects on Digital Asset Distribution, Experimentation and Innovation, and StartWithXML, all of which had both a written report and live event component. He is currently (January 2009) organizing new research on “Shifting Sales Channels” for a BISG Making Information Pay conference in May 2009. @MikeShatzkin | |
| John Sherer [More Info] Director University of North Carolina Press John Sherer was named the seventh director of the University of North Carolina Press in June of 2012. Prior to that, he was the publisher of Basic Books in New York and also held the positions of Publisher of Nation Books, member of the AAP Trade Executive Committee, and adjunct professor at New York University’s School for Continuing and Professional Studies.@jesherer | |
| Tzviya Siegman [More Info] Senior Content Technology Specialist John Wiley and Sons | |
| Suzie Sisoler [More Info] Senior Director of Consumer Engagement Penguin Random House Suzie Sisoler is the Senior Director of Consumer Engagement for Penguin Group (USA) where she is responsible for creating and sustaining a direct relationship with readers. In this role, Suzie develops and implements results-based marketing strategies to identify and communicate with consumers across all digital channels. Suzie has over 15 years experience creating online promotions for nationally best-selling publishing properties and direct-to-consumer initiatives that target a diverse, wide-reaching audience in both the trade and children's markets. | |
| Rebecca Smart [More Info] CEO Osprey Group | |
| Terri Lynn Soutor [More Info] President Brain Hive, LLC Terri is one of three founders of Brain Hive, LLC, which launched in June 2012 as a division of Lerner Universal Corporation. As President, Terri is responsible for business, product and marketing strategy. Terri also serves as Executive Vice President of Marketing & Digital Strategy for sister company, Lerner Publishing Group, providing strategic leadership for digital products, marketing and publicity for the publishing house's 13 imprints and divisions.Prior to joining Lerner Universal Corporation, she was Vice President of Marketing at PLATO Learning from 2003-2009. Terri has been in software marketing, EdTech and publishing now for over 20 years with a personal and professional mission for joining exceptional content with technology in an accessible and affordable way to improve teaching and learning in our nation's schools. | |
| Brad Stone [More Info] Journalist/Author The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon Brad Stone joined Bloomberg Businessweek in August, 2010 as a senior writer covering technology. He has written over a dozen cover stories for the magazine on topics such as Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, the secretive Google X research lab, the pro-labor policies of Costco and the Chinese search firm Baidu. He is also the author of the book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, which Little, Brown & Company will publish in October, 2013. Brad joined Businessweek from the New York Times, where he had been a reporter since December 2006. He covered Internet trends, as well as technology companies like Google, Amazon and Apple from the newspaper’s San Francisco bureau. From 1998 to November 2006, Brad served as the Silicon Valley Correspondent for Newsweek magazine, writing for the technology and business sections of the magazine and authoring a regular online column. Brad graduated from Columbia University in 1993 and is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. He lives in San Francisco. @BradStone | |
| Joanna Stone Herman [More Info] Co-Founder/CEO Librify | |
| Kevin Sullivan [More Info] Editor in Chief, Digital Products F.A. Davis Company | |
| Anne Marie Tallberg [More Info] VP, Associate Publisher St. Martin's Press | |
| Joshua Tallent [More Info] Chief eBook Architect Firebrand Technologies Joshua Tallent, the Chief eBook Architect at Firebrand Technologies, has been an eBook developer since 2002 and is a well-known eBook expert and teacher. Joshua advocates for beautiful, functional, accessible eBooks, and focuses much of his attention on the practical implementation of solid eBook development practices. @ebookarchitects | |
| Pip Tannenbaum [More Info] Digital Product Development Director Parragon Books Pip Tannenbaum is the Digital Product Development Director at Parragon Books, the largest illustrated non-fiction publisher in the world. Her responsibilities include the development, production, and distribution of Parragon’s lifestyle, reference and children’s digital content. Under Pip’s direction, Parragon’s digital production team puts an emphasis on optimizing their creative production workflows in order to create quality, multi-platform content to enrich and entertain readers all around the globe. | |
| John Tayman [More Info] Founder and CEO Byliner John Tayman is Founder and CEO of Byliner. Byliner publishes original fiction and nonfiction by the world's best writers, including bestsellers by Amy Tan, Margaret Atwood, Jon Krakauer, Ann Patchett, Nick Hornby, Chuck Palahniuk, Nicole Krauss and Sebastian Junger, among others. These Byliner Originals are written to be read in two hours or less, and are sold at major digital bookstores, and by subscription at Byliner. Prior to founding Byliner in June 2011, Tayman founded, edited, or contributed to many award-winning publications, including Outside, GQ, Time, and The New York Times Magazine. His bestselling nonfiction book "The Colony" was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. @motormouths | |
| Maja Thomas [More Info] Consultant Maja Thomas is a consultant to the Publishing industry, with a focus on digital strategy, transformation, innovation and new business models. Most recently she served as Senior Vice President, Hachette Digital for Hachette Book Group and Vice President for Hachette Livre. Over the course of two decades, Maja has been a Grammy award winning producer and director of audiobooks, editor of New York Times bestseller Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, and developer of industry leading ebooks, enhanced ebooks, and applications. Starting in 2005 Maja led global digital strategy for Hachette Livre. In the US, Hachette Digital revenues exceeded 25% of HBG revenue in 2012. She was the key partner for companies such as Apple, Amazon and B&N.com. She also crafted agreements with libraries for access to the Hachette Book Group catalog, and oversaw the creation of Bookish, a consumer-facing joint venture with Simon and Schuster and Penguin designed to facilitate book discovery. | |
| Nadine Vassallo [More Info] Project Manager, Research & Information BISG Nadine Vassallo is Project Manager, Research & Information for the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). Before joining BISG in 2011, Nadine was the Program Coordinator for Columbia University's Institute for Research on Women & Gender. She has also held publicity, marketing, and bookselling positions with Penguin Group USA, Phaidon Press, and Borders. She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. | |
| Marcello Vena [More Info] General Manager of the Digital Trade Book Business RCS Libri Marcello Vena is the general manager of the digital trade book business of RCS Mediagroup, one of the largest European book publishers and owner of Rizzoli, Bompiani and Fabbri Editori. He has over 16 years of digital innovation experience across three continents (Europe, US & Asia), encompassing the roles of designer, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, management consultant and general manager. He holds an MBA with Dean’s List Distinction from INSEAD (France, Singapore) and a MS of Electronics Engineering. He speaks all five main languages of Western Europe. @marcellovena | |
| Len Vlahos [More Info] Executive Director BISG Len Vlahos is the executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, a national not-for-profit trade association whose mission is to create a more informed, efficient, and empowered book industry. Prior to joining BISG, Len spent nearly 20 years at the American Booksellers Association, where has served as ABA’s communications director, e-commerce director, education director, and most recently, chief operating officer. Len has worked for Internet marketing pioneer Yoyodyne, and for Kratz & Co. public relations. Prior to joining ABA, he worked in independent, chain, and university bookstores.Len Vlahos is the executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, a national not-for-profit trade association whose mission is to create a more informed, efficient, and empowered book industry. Prior to joining BISG, Len spent nearly 20 years at the American Booksellers Association, where has served as ABA’s communications director, e-commerce director, education director, and most recently, chief operating officer. Len has worked for Internet marketing pioneer Yoyodyne, and for Kratz & Co. public relations. Prior to joining ABA, he worked in independent, chain, and university bookstores. @LenVlahos | |
| Marlie Wasserman [More Info] Director Rutgers University Press Marlie Wasserman is the Director of Rutgers University Press. She began her career as a social science editor at the University of Chicago Press, then moved to Rutgers as editor in chief. In the mid '90s she served as Executive Editor at Routledge, and then returned to Rutgers University Press as Director. In addition, she continues to acquire books in several fields, including anthropology and human rights. | |
| Veronica Wasserman [More Info] Brand Director/ Wimpy Kid Abrams Veronica Wasserman is the Brand Director for Wimpy Kid, and resident licensing expert, at ABRAMS. She began her publishing career in 2005 at Penguin Young Readers group where she helped to develop the company’s licensing department within its Grosset and Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan imprints. In 2008, Veronica received her master’s degree in Reputation Management: Public Relations and Corporate Communication from New York University. She lives in Brooklyn. | |
| Douglas Waterfall [More Info] Architect, InDesign Engineering Adobe Systems Incorporated Douglas Waterfall has been the Engineering Architect starting back in CS6 and is responsible for partnering with Product Management and providing technical leadership particularly in the area of Text and Core Architecture. Douglas is currently very busy defining the scope and directing the team improving the EPUB export in InDesign CC. Prior to this role Douglas was an individual contributor responsible for designing and implementing a wide range of popular InDesign features including Tables, Footnotes, Text Wrap on Master Pages and in Tables, Balanced Columns, Vertical Justification in non-rectangular Text Frames, Paragraphs which Split and Span Columns and Auto-Fit Text Frames. If you have ever put type on an InDesign page then you have used Douglas's code. | |
| Jamie Watson [More Info] Collection Development Coordinator Baltimore Public Library Jamie Watson has been working in libraries since 1996, and began working with ebooks by test driving the Rocket Book for the Maryland Libraries in 1999. She is the Collection Development Coordinator for Baltimore County Public Library, Maryland, a large suburban library system with a $7 million materials budget. Currently a customer of both Overdrive and 3M, she likes reading paper books, ebooks and listening to audiobooks. | |
| Scott Waxman [More Info] Chairman and Co-founder Diversion Books Scott Waxman has spent his entire career in book publishing. Before moving to the agenting side, he worked as an editor at HarperCollins Publishers. In 1997 he founded the Waxman Literary Agency, a mid-size agency known for its hands-on approach to book development and its passion for great storytelling. The Waxman Agency has represented dozens of New York Times bestselling books and other national bestsellers from novelists, journalists, historians, and experts in their fields. Scott’s experience in electronic publishing dates back to 1999, when he founded LiveREADS, which produced enhanced eBooks. He brings a total of more than 25 years of literary experience to Diversion Books. An alumnus of Cornell University, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English. | |
| Karl Weber [More Info] Chairman, Editorial Board LID Publishing Karl Weber is Chairman of the U.S. Editorial Committee of LID Publishing, which specializes in business books. He is also a writer and editor who specializes in topics from business, politics, current affairs, history, and social issues. Weber's book projects include the New York Times bestseller Creating a World Without Poverty, co-authored with Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize (2008) and its sequel, Building Social Business (2010); the New York Times number one best seller What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception by Scott McClellan (2008), which Weber edited; and three best-selling companion books to acclaimed films, Food Inc. (2009), Waiting for “Superman” (2010), and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012), all of which Weber edited. You can learn more about Karl Weber by visiting his website, karlweberliterary.com. | |
| Dana Beth Weinberg, Ph.D. [More Info] Professor of Sociology and Director of the MA in Data Analytics & Applied Social Research Queens College - CUNY Dana Beth Weinberg, received her doctorate from Harvard University and is a Professor of Sociology at Queens College – CUNY, where she directs the MA Program in Data Analytics and Applied Social Research. Her research focuses on organizational behavior, work, and occupations. Inspired by her own personal experiences as a novelist, her current research examines the way that digitization is changing the book industry for readers, writers, and publishers. @DBWeinberg | |
| Andrew Weinstein [More Info] Vice President, Content Acquisition Scribd Andrew Weinstein is Vice President of Content Acquisition at Scribd. A veteran in the publishing industry with more than 15 years experience, Andrew is responsible for Scribd's content partnerships and business development. Before joining the Scribd team, Andrew founded AW Media LLC, a publishing start-up focused on the development of strategies and solutions to deliver the future of publishing. Andrew spent over a decade at Ingram Content Group most recently serving as Vice President and General Manager, Retail Solutions. During his 11-year career at Ingram, Andrew was a change agent for two of the largest trends in book publishing, ebooks and print-on-demand. Prior to Ingram Content Group, Andrew was a co-founder of an electronic publishing start-up, JNMedia, which sold its assets to Ingram's Lightning Source in 2000. Andrew earned his MBA in Finance and Marketing from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and BA in Economics from Brandeis University. | |
| Jennifer Weltz [More Info] Vice President Jean Naggar Literary Agency As Vice President of JVNLA, Jennifer Weltz has sold books domestically, internationally, and for film for nearly two decades. Coming from a mediation background, Jennifer sees herself as a liaison between her author and the editor and publishing house that acquire her author's work. This role takes on a myriad of forms — business manager, confidant, task master, preliminary editor, and matchmaker — to name a few. Since Jennifer takes up an author's career and not just a project, she is very careful and selective about signing on new authors. @JVNLA | |
| Sarah Wendell [More Info] Co-Founder Smart Bitches, Trashy Books In 2005 I co-founded Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Since then, I've published two books about the romance genre, spoken to romance readers all over the world who are among the most awesome people ever, and kept on reading, reviewing and discussing romance novels, my favorite kind of book. When I'm not reading, which isn't often, I like cooking, watching tv, exhausting my children, and going outside as much as possible. With bug spray. | |
| John Wheeler [More Info] Senior Vice President, Strategy and Emerging Technologies SPi Global John P. Wheeler is a highly accomplished industry veteran with over 20 years of experience in e-learning, e-content creation, product development, and offshore utilization. He leads SPi Global’s Innovation Lab initiative and partners with our sales teams as solutions architect for expanding the company’s service offerings in its Content Solutions business units. His strong technical and business qualifications are the result of his domestic and international hands-on experience in strategic planning, business development, project and product management, system engineering strategies and project implementation using onshore and offshore development models. He has combined a deep knowledge of programming and development with excellent management skills and business acumen to launch successful market-oriented products. John also holds a US patent and is an author and developer of award-winning e-learning/training products. Prior to joining SPi Global, John was with HOV services where he was Vice President, Publishing and eContent. Prior to that, he was with Elsevier for more than six years as Director, Multimedia Production, where he was responsible for the production of all electronic products supporting Elsevier’s global publications. John holds a degree in Philosophy, Minor in Social Psychology, from St. Louis University in the US. | |
| David Wilk [More Info] Owner Booktrix David Wilk has worked successfully in almost every aspect of publishing and book distribution in both print and digital environments. He is currently Publisher of digital children’s book startup Frederator Books, and provides strategic and practical publishing services to authors, publishers, media companies and nonprofits through Booktrix. Websites include booktrix.com (blog is there), livewriters.com (author and book videos), writerscast.com (podcasts), armorynewmedia.com (digital publishing), and tumblr.com/blog/selfpublishingnews. | |
| Troy Williams [More Info] President Macmillan New Ventures Troy Williams is President of Macmillan New Ventures, where he is responsible for managing a portfolio of innovative educational technology companies and identifying emerging technologies and trends that will have a major impact on student performance and outcomes. Prior to Macmillan, Troy advised development stage companies focused on restructuring, cost containment and product development. From 1998 to 2007, Troy was President and CEO of Questia Media, Inc., an early online electronic book offering that he founded and sold to Cengage Learning. Questia raised $150 million in financing and served 400,000 subscribers across 180 countries. Troy is a member of the Advisory Board at the Rice University Humanities and has served on the boards of the Harris County Education Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston, the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship in Austin, and Imprint, Houston’s leading literary arts organization, among others. He has also been an adjunct professor at NYU, where he taught the capstone thesis course on starting new businesses in the Masters of Publishing program. | |
| Ira Wolfman [More Info] President POE Communications Ira Wolfman is president of POE Communications, providing digital strategy and content development advisory services. He was formerly SVP of Weekly Reader, a part of Reader’s Digest Association, and Editorial Director/Publisher of Sesame Workshop. | |
| Phoebe Yeh [More Info] VP, Publisher Crown Books for Young Readers Phoebe Yeh joined Random House Children’s Books in the newly created post of v-p, publisher, Crown Books for Young Readers where she is publishing new books with a focus on middle-grade fiction and narrative nonfiction. Her Fall 14 inaugural list includes books by New York Times bestselling authors Suzy Becker, Jon Meacham, and Walter Dean Myers and newcomer Lou Anders. Prior to joining HC in 1996, Yeh was a senior editor at Scholastic Press, where she edited the Magic School Bus books and was an editor of the SeeSaw Book Club. As Editorial Director at Harper Collins she was responsible for the estate programs of Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and C.S. Lewis, the Series of Unfortunate Events publishing program, and the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series, and acquired Lincoln Peirce's Big Nate series. She has worked with Aliki, Soman Chainani, Eloise Greenfield, Julius Lester, Betsy and Ted Lewin, Christopher Myers, Walter Dean Myers, Joanne Ryder, Seymour Simon, and Laurence Yep. | |
