ABA CEO Teicher To Retire

The ABA under Oren Teicher’s watch grew from1,401 member with 1,651 stores in 2009, to 1,835 companies with 2,470 stores in 2018.

Oren Teicher, American Booksellers Association chief executive officer, who has led the ABA since 2009, announced this week that he will retire in December. Teicher started at the ABA in 1990 as its associate executive director. He has also served as the organization’s director of government affairs, chief operating officer, and founding president of the ABA’s Foundation for Free Expression.

“The ABA under Oren’s watch grew from1,401 member with 1,651 stores in 2009, to 1,835 companies with 2,470 stores in 2018,” notes Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weeklysenior writer. “All that while facing the growing juggernaut of Amazon, and the rise of e-books, which were supposed to lead to the death of the indie bookstore.”

Robert Sindelar, ABA board president and managing partner of Third Place Books, credits Teicher with transforming the retail landscape for indie booksellers; helping member stores make significant changes to the independent bookstore business model; and expanding the ABA’s role in nearly every aspect of its advocacy and educational efforts, including the annual ABA Winter Institute.

“Teicher has also helped enhance ties with publishers,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “And during Teicher’s time as ABA CEO t the organization created an ABA Board Task Force on Diversity, at the urging of booksellers.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.