BookExpo America former director brings international experience to drive OverDrive’s expansion

 

CLEVELAND — March 21, 2016 – OverDrive today announced that Steve Rosato has joined the team as an International Business Development Executive to accelerate OverDrive’s global expansion. For the past 18 years, Steve was a leading diplomat for the book and publishing industry with BookExpo America. Rosato was instrumental in the success of the BEA Global Market Forum program with China and Poland and in the recent trade mission to Cuba.

“Steve’s industry knowledge and valuable global relationships will greatly serve OverDrive’s publishers and authors as we continue to open up new markets for their titles,” said Steve Potash, OverDrive CEO. “This is a tremendous win for publishers and all suppliers of digital media as OverDrive invests in growth for our international markets.”

In addition to representing OverDrive’s catalogs and services for U.S. and English eBooks, audiobooks and other digital media, Rosato will help identify and onboard digital books from all countries and languages that can be added to the OverDrive Marketplace.

“The chance to join OverDrive is such an incredible opportunity,” said Rosato. “OverDrive’s significant growth, specifically internationally, aligns perfectly with my industry experience and relationships. It was the chance to work across a number of global markets, continue in the publishing industry, and contribute to the growth that OverDrive is already experiencing, that made this an ideal situation for me.”

Rosato was responsible for many key initiatives and introduced a range of innovations that enabled BookExpo America (BEA) to continue as one of the leading book industry and publishing events in the world. That includes the inception of the Global Market Forum program, focusing on librarian attendance at BEA and establishing co-location partnerships with the International Digital Publishers Forum and the Book Bloggers Convention. As part of the Global Market Forum, he negotiated directly with the Chinese government to have the largest trade delegation of Chinese publishers to ever visit the United States. He worked with the Book Institute of Poland to have Poland as the Global Market Forum Country of Honor for BEA 2016.

Rosato was recognized by Trade Show Magazine as one of 20 of the Industry Elite in 2012, the Industry Person of the Year by the Association of Author Representatives in 2010, and cited by the Russian Government as an individual contributing meritorious service improving relations between Russia and the United States.

 

About OverDrive
OverDrive is the leading digital distribution platform, supplying the industry’s largest catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, streaming video and periodicals to 34,000 libraries, schools and retailers worldwide. We support all major computers and devices, including iOS®, Android™, Chromebook™ and Kindle® (U.S. only). OverDrive delivers all digital media on a single platform, and offers innovations such as OverDrive Read, the breakthrough EPUB and HTML5 browser-based reading experience, and Read-Along eBooks.  Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA and is owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten. For more information, visit www.overdrive.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and our blog.

Contact:

David Burleigh,

Director of Marketing & Communications

dburleigh@overdrive.com

216-573-6886 ext. 218

 

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