Ann Arbor, MI - Edwards Brothers announced today that book industry veteran Andrew Pate will be joining Edwards Brothers in the newly-created position of Director of Digital and Program Sales.  The move is part of Edwards Brothers' continuing push into the short-run offset, digital, and print-on-demand book and journal manufacturing segment. Edwards opened its first digital book center in 1997.

"Digital manufacturing is becoming a very important part of our business," said President and CEO John Edwards.  "We now have digital book centers operating across the U.S., Canada, and Europe and we've recently formed a global print alliance that will allow us to enter orders for customers here and have them printed around the world through the alliance.  It was time to appoint someone to help us manage this growth and to take us into new segments we're now able to serve with our expanding capabilities."

As an early leader Pate has spent the last fifteen of his twenty-five years in the publishing industry focusing on print-on-demand and related technologies.  Most recently he was Senior Vice President of Business Development for On Demand Books, LLC – makers of the Espresso Book Machine – and Senior Vice President of Operations and Global Fulfillment at Lulu.com, where he created the widest distributed print network in Europe, Oceania, and the U.S.  Prior to joining Lulu, Pate served as Vice President of Publisher Business Development at Lightning Source, Inc.  His publishing experience includes serving as Executive Vice President and COO of Rutledge Hill Press as well as stints at South-Western Publishing and Rand McNally & Co.  He is active in industry associations and has been a speaker at numerous industry events.  He has a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an M.B.A. from Xavier University.  Pate is a native of Nashville, Tennessee.

"I have been a customer, a competitor, and a colleague of John Edwards for 20 years or better and am really looking forward to working with him at Edwards Brothers," said Pate.  "The integrity of John and the organization in general combined with its attention towards customers and its continuing innovation in the distributed print/print-on-demand arena are compelling reasons to join this industry leader."