David Taylor named Managing Director at Lightning Source UK Ltd.
Press release from the issuing company
MILTON KEYNES, UNITED KINGDOM – Lightning Source UK Ltd., a subsidiary of Lightning Source Inc. the leading provider of digital content management solutions to the book industry, today named David Taylor as the new Managing Director for Lightning’s UK operations, effective January 1, 2004.
Mr. Taylor will replace Malcolm Allen, who will retire at the end of the year. Mr. Taylor currently serves as the Business Development Director for the Lightning Source in the UK.
“We are delighted that such an experienced and well known figure from the book trade will be heading up our UK operation,” said J. Kirby Best, President and CEO of Lightning Source Inc. “Print on demand is poised to move to its next stage of development and David is exactly the right sort of person to drive that, both in terms of his business experience and his own character. His passion for books feeds his enthusiasm for the print on demand offer and he communicates that admirably to both publishers and booksellers. We are now at a stage in our development in the UK where we need that perspective.”
Mr. Taylor started his career on the shop floor of Blackwell’s bookshop in Broad Street, Oxford in 1983 and worked his way up to the board of Blackwell’s UK library supply business. In 1999, he co-founded the Nibbie-shortlisted Internet bookselling company, swotbooks.com, where he continues to serve as non-executive Chairman.
“It’s a great privilege to be given the opportunity to head up a young and rapidly expanding business, and one with a model that revolutionises the way in which books are produced and made available to people who want to read them,” Mr. Taylor commented. “As a trade we have been slower than we should have been in embracing a technology that keeps books alive and helps everyone in the whole supply chain to realise sales that would otherwise have been lost. I have no doubt at all that print on demand has a huge role to play in the future of the book as a product.”
Mr. Taylor is a past Chairman of the College and University Booksellers Group, and is currently a member of the BA Council and Chairman of the Internet Booksellers Group, which he was instrumental in establishing. He has also acted as a judge on both the Whitbread and NCR Non Fiction book awards and has written a number of articles for the trade press.