Wednesday May 27, 8:10 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release barnesandnoble.com
barnesandnoble.com Strengthens Management Team With Four Additions
The World's Largest Online Bookseller Names Chief Financial Officer; Vice President, Executive Editor; Vice President, Merchandising; And Vice President, Content Development
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 1998-- barnesandnoble.com today announced the addition of four new members to its senior management team -- Rob Chmiel as chief financial officer; Melissa Lake Roberson as vice president and executive editor; Brenda Marsh as vice president of merchandising and Tom Simon as vice president of content development.
"We're extremely pleased to add these outstanding leaders, each of whom is a proven e-commerce or bookselling executive,'' said Jeff Killeen, chief operating officer, barnesandnoble.com. "I'm confident they will make important and immediate contributions to our continued growth and success.''
Rob Chmiel joined barnesandnoble.com from the Walt Disney Company. At Disney, Chmiel was most recently vice president of finance and operations for Disney Online. He was instrumental in the startup and success of Disney.com, as well as several other major Disney launches including Family.com, Disney's "Daily Blast'' and "Family Fun,'' and "Family PC'' magazines. Prior to Disney, Rob held financial management posts with Oppenheimer & Co.,
Prudential-Bache and The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation. As chief financial officer, Chmiel will be responsible for financial management, human resources, and facilities/administration at barnesandnoble.com.
Melissa Lake Roberson also has extensive online and publishing experience. Most recently, she served as a consultant to Amazon.com, where she helped design the editorial sections of this bookselling site. Previously, at Simon & Schuster, she helped plan and organize the launch of SimonSays.com, the company's public Web site. Roberson has also held positions at MCI/News Corp. Internet Ventures and the Prodigy Services Company. She has received
numerous awards for her original and creative online work. As vice president and executive editor at barnesandnoble.com, she will be responsible for the site's day-to-day editorial operations, its interactive author chats and online community, subject area merchandising and creative strategy.
Brenda Marsh has extensive experience in the publishing world. Previously, she was president of sales at HarperCollins, responsible for the adult trade, special markets and international divisions. While there, she created an advisory committee to integrate the sales team with systems, customer service, collections and buyers in order to more effectively close deals, and helped to increase revenue from $180 million to $300 million. Prior to
HarperCollins, Marsh held sales positions at Viking Penguin, St. Martin's Press, Simon & Schuster and Columbia University Press. At barnesandnoble.com, she will be responsible for all merchandising and editorial operations, as well as publisher relationships.
Tom Simon has over 26 years experience in bookselling. Most recently, he oversaw the cleaning, restructuring and enrichment of Barnes & Noble's master title database. In his new role at barnesandnoble.com, Tom will spearhead the content and database acquisition strategy, as well as focus on continued enrichment of the content available in the databases to support the site. Tom began his bookselling career as a paperback buyer for Waldenbooks. He has
also held a variety of book merchandising positions, including vice president of the Brentano's chain, vice president and general manager of Encore Books & Music, and most recently, was the creator of the MUZE-For-Books database and kiosk.
About barnesandnoble.com
barnesandnoble.com is a leading retailer of books and the exclusive bookseller to America Online (AOL)'s 12 million subscribers (Keyword: barnesandnoble). barnesandnoble.com also has exclusive partnerships with more than 8,000 Web sites through its "Affiliate Network,'' including CNN Interactive, Disney, Lycos, and ZDNet.
barnesandnoble.com continues to bring bookselling innovation to the Internet. It was the first online bookseller to offer deep discounts and the first to carry an extensive inventory on its shelves. Currently, the company stocks more than 600,000 titles in its state-of-the-art distribution center, which is the largest standing inventory of any bookseller online.
About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. operates 481 Barnes & Noble bookstores and 520 B. Dalton bookstores. Barnes & Noble stores offer an authoritative selection of more than 175,000 titles from more than 10,000 publishers with an emphasis on small, independent publishers and university presses. The company also publishes books under the Barnes & Noble imprint for exclusive sale through its retail stores and nationwide mail-order catalogs.
General financial information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's investor relations Web site: shareholder.com.
Contact:
Ben Boyd, (212) 414-6014 bboyd@bnweb.com
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