Senior Vice President to Extend Digital Rights Management Services into Library, Enterprise, and Government Markets

 

CLEVELAND – November 11, 2002 – OverDrive, a leading provider of digital publishing, DRM and media marketplace technologies, today announced Ray Leach has joined the company as Senior Vice President, Business Development.   He is responsible for identifying and developing new business opportunities and partnerships for OverDrive’s enterprise digital rights management (DRM) solutions.  These include securing digital content distribution for healthcare, government, banking and finance, and government agencies.  In addition, Mr. Leach will lead the company’s sales and marketing efforts for OverDrive’s eBook products and services into public, academic, and corporate libraries seeking to develop digital content libraries.

Mr. Leach brings 14 years of technology and entrepreneurial experience in domestic and international business development, strategic planning, and marketing for technology and systems integration companies.  “Ray’s track record of success for bringing new technologies to the enterprise will be invaluable as OverDrive extends its success for its DRM solutions to enterprise and corporate applications,” stated Steve Potash, CEO of OverDrive, Inc.  “He has a strong background in both digital content technologies and systems integration that will serve OverDrive and its global partners well,” Potash added.

Prior to joining OverDrive, Mr. Leach was founder and president of Capella Investments, Inc., a firm that provided angel and management consulting to startup technology organizations.  He also was the Entrepreneur-in Residence for CommonAngels, the largest angel investing organization in Boston.   Mr. Leach began his career at IBM and later co-founded and was President of Publishing Solutions, Inc. a systems integrator to creative organizations throughout the U.S.    The Weatherhead School of Management recognized Publishing Solutions as the 6th fastest growing company in the Ohio from 1990-1995. Both companies were sold in 1997 to Multigraphics, Inc.

He has held executive positions at Paragon Corporate Holdings, where he was responsible for digital services for the U.S. and Europe for the $300 million publicly financed organization.  Mr. Leach was a Sloan Fellow and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.  He also earned a BA in Business Administration from the University of Akron.

 

About OverDrive

OverDrive, Inc. (www.overdrive.com) is a leading provider of eBook, DRM and media marketplace technologies enabling the secure management and distribution of digital media over global networks. OverDrive is a strategic partner to Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), Adobe Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE) and Palm Digital Media, a business unit of Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM). The company is a Gold Sponsor of the Open eBook Forum. OverDrive was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Media Contacts

Loree Potash

(216) 573-6886

media@overdrive.com

 

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