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Dr. Hannes Blum
President and Chief Executive Officer, AbeBooks, Inc.
Hannes holds a Masters degree in Business and Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe and a PhD in business from the Otto Beisheim School of Management (WHU) in Germany. Hannes started his career with the Boston Consulting Group in strategy consulting. He then co-founded JustBooks in 1999 and became President and CEO at AbeBooks Inc - the world's largest marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books and a top 100 Internet Retailer - following the acquisition of JustBooks by AbeBooks in October 2001. During his tenure at AbeBooks, three companies have been acquired under his leadership (Iberlibro.com, BookFinder.com and FillZ.com) and AbeBooks also made a 40% investment in the leading social networking site for booklovers, LibraryThing.com. Hannes has won various industry awards, including being named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young for the Consumer Category in the Pacific Region in 2003. He's an active investor in several internet related businesses (including Suite101 in Vancouver, BC, Conducive Corp in New York, and two Victoria, BC-based firms Teampages Inc and Indochino Inc). He also serves on three other Boards of Directors besides his mandate at AbeBooks Inc.
John Chase
Chief Financial Officer
John has over 25 years of business and financial experience. He has worked for Amazon.com's marketplace division, Exchange.com, an early competitor of eBay, and Rounder Records – the world's largest independent record label. Massachusetts-based Exchange.com was an online marketplace that specialized in niche markets, such as rare books, and eventually purchased Bibliofind.com – one of AbeBooks' early competitors. Amazon then acquired both Exchange.com and Bibilofind, and John relocated to Amazon's Seattle headquarters in 1999. John initially served as chief financial executive for Amazon's fledgling marketplace division before being appointed director of finance, planning and analysis. He also spent two years in AbeBooks’ hometown of Victoria, BC, (2003-2005) with Power Measurement - the energy management technology firm - as its chief financial officer.
Laura-Lea Berna
VP of Operations
A native of British Columbia, Laura-Lea joined AbeBooks.com in 2002. She held a number of positions - including business development manager responsible for reseller programs, online marketing manager, group program manager for product management and also director of customer service and operations - before becoming VP of operations in November 2007. Her career began as a medical laboratory technologist before attending the University of Victoria where she gained a degree in commerce and graduated with distinction in 1998. Prior to joining AbeBooks, she was a branch manager for Manpower Employment Services in Victoria, BC, where she handled clients in the high tech sector. As VP of operations, Laura-Lea is responsible for daily activities at AbeBooks including product development, operation of the websites and support services.
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