April 29 to 30, Nashville

SPEAKERS

Ben Amundgaard

Ben Amundgaard serves as the Vice President of Aquifer Content at BiblioNexus, where he leads a team dedicated to building a vast library of open-source, multi-modal resources for Bible translation and theological education. Over the course of 14 years, Ben honed his expertise at Logos Bible Software, where he directed content licensing, production, and pricing, and at its publishing imprint, Lexham Press, where he served as publisher. Across both roles, he cultivated high-performing global teams, reimagined workflows to achieve greater efficiency, and brought ambitious projects to life, from concept to launch. With a Master's in Church History from Regent College and a degree in Biblical Studies from the University of the Nations, Ben is driven by a conviction that Christian theology can illuminate how we design, engage with, and apply technology.

Larry Bennett

Larry Bennett, Executive Director, North America, manages North America for French technology company Nord Compo, the leading supplier of composition and digital services to French language publishers. Prior to Nord Compo, he was President of Distribution at Bookmasters, Inc., where he was responsible for managing the global distribution business, including print and eBooks. Before Bookmasters, he served as Vice President of Digital Print Media at Baker & Taylor, where he was responsible for developing and managing the company's Digital Print Media (print on demand) business worldwide. He is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Placing a high value on languages, he is a fluent Spanish speaker and speaks conversational French and Italian.

Dr. Bryan Chapell

Dr. Bryan Chapell, Ph.D. Is Pastor Emeritus of the historic Grace Presbyterian Church and President Emeritus of Covenant Theological Seminary. He now leads the Administrative Committee of the Presbyterian Church in America. He is the author of numerous books including Grace at Work.

Uli Chi

During his business career, Uli Chi was an award-winning technological entrepreneur, who founded and led a software company that developed 3-D virtual reality software to simplify complex decision-making for consumers and businesses. He holds a doctorate in computer science from the University of Washington. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the De Pree Center for Leadership and regularly writes and teaches on the subject of wisdom and leadership. He is the author of The Wise Leader (Eerdmans, 2024)

Michele Cobb

Michele is a partner at Forte Business Consulting, which provides Business Development and Association Management services for the publishing industry. Her audio industry roles include being Executive Director of The Audio Publishers Association and Publisher of both AudioFile Magazine and MMB Media.

Jeff Crosby

Jeff Crosby is the president of ECPA and an organizational leader and writer who has spent more than four decades working in the world of words and ideas through roles in bookselling and book publishing. He is the author of The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts (Broadleaf, 2023) and the editor and compiler of Days of Grace Through the Year (IVP, 2007), a collection of meditations drawn from the work of bestselling author Lewis B. Smedes. His next book, World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading, will be published in the fall of 2025 by Paraclete Press. He is currently at work on The Spirit in the Sky: Popular Music and the Search for Transcendence (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2026). His previous written work has appeared in numerous publications including CRUX, Conversations Journal, Living Lutheran Magazine, Urban Faith, Books & Culture, Christian Retailing, Publishers Weekly, Together (UK) and ExploreFaith.org.

Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman has 25 years of experience in book publishing, with expertise in business strategy for authors and publishers. She’s the co-founder and editor of The Hot Sheet, a paid newsletter about the book publishing industry, and has previously worked for Writer’s Digest and the Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2023, Jane was awarded Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World. Jane’s most recent book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. Publishers Weekly said that it is “destined to become a staple reference book for writers and those interested in publishing careers.” A second edition releases in spring 2025. In addition to being guest faculty at creative writing programs and residencies, Jane has delivered talk at hundreds of writing and publishing industry events, including Frankfurt Book Fair, NYU's Advanced Publishing Institute, SXSW, Stockholm Writers Festival, San Miguel Writers Conference, San Francisco Writers Conference, and SCBWI’s annual conferences. She’s also served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund.

Brad Hill

Brad Hill serves as the Associate Publisher at HarperAudio. Before joining HarperCollins, he held the position of Studio Production Manager at Brilliance Publishing, an Amazon Company. Boasting more than two decades of experience, Brad has dedicated his entire career to the world of audiobooks. Outside of his professional endeavors, he channels his creativity as a music composer for film and media. Brad currently resides south of Nashville, TN, with his wife, three daughters, and two dogs.

Andy Hunter

Andy Hunter is the Founder & CEO of Bookshop.org. He is also the co-creator and publisher of the websites Literary Hub, Crime Reads and BookMarks, and co-founder and chairman of Electric Literature. His focus is keeping literature a vital part of our culture in the digital age.

Mark James

Mark James is an accomplished business improvement advisor with over 40 years of experience in workplace performance, change management, and customer loyalty. As founder and President of Performance Advisors Group, Inc., he assists clients achieve sustainable growth by elevating people engagement and performance and guiding successful change. Mark regularly speaks to business audiences on employee and operational performance improvement. He resides in Northern Illinois where serves on the Board of Directors of Family Counseling Service in Aurora, Illinois and the University of Illinois Suburban (Chicago) Alumni Group.

Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is a seasoned executive with almost 40 years of experience in the technology, publishing, and distribution markets. He has worked on digital database and content projects around the world. Michael is the Vice President of Content at Benetech. In this role he works directly with publishers, conversion houses, technology platforms, retailers, and educational institutions to help them understand and implement processes that allow for fully accessible content to get from authors all the way through to the end reader. He has a long-term relationship to standards having sat on several ISO, NISO, BISG, and MARC standards committees throughout his career. Michael is a member of the Board of Directors for DAISY.

Bill Kasdorf

Bill Kasdorf, [email protected], is Principal of Kasdorf & Associates, LLC, a consultancy focusing on editorial and production workflows, XML/HTML/EPUB content modeling, standards and best practices, and accessibility. He is a founding partner of Publishing Technology Partners. Active in the W3C Publishing@W3C activity, Bill is the W3C Global Publishing Evangelist. He’s an active member of NISO, SSP, BISG, IPTC, and the DAISY Consortium. Past President of SSP and a recipient of SSP’s Distinguished Service Award and BISG’s Industry Champion Award, he’s general editor of The Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing, serves on Learned Publishing’s editorial board, and is a columnist for Publishers Weekly. Clients have included societies such as NEJM, NAP, IEEE, APA, and ACP; university presses such as MIT, Harvard, Cambridge, Toronto, and Columbia; publishers such as PLOS, SAGE, Norton, Cochrane, and Pearson; and organizations such as the British Library, the World Bank, OCLC, ORCID, and the EU Publishing Office.

Klaus E. Krogh

Klaus E. Krogh is the CEO and founder of 2K/DENMARK, a globally acclaimed typographical design company specializing in Bible design, layout, and typeface development. He graduated from the Copenhagen School of Graphic Design in 1981 and BI Norwegian Business School in 1984. With over 50 years of experience in the industry, Klaus has accumulated extensive knowledge of book production, publishing, and design while acknowledging the constant need for innovation to keep the industry progressing. Klaus has also been Honorary Consul of México (2010–2024), National Chairman of ’Society of Book Craftsmanship’ (1998–2005), Examiner for Media and Communication education in Denmark (1999–2019), and Chairman Committee of Examiners (2006–2008).

Ben Mandrell

Ben Mandrell was elected the 10th president of Lifeway Christian Resources on June 28, 2019. As president and CEO, Mandrell provides vision and strategic leadership to the nonprofit organization headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. Prior to joining Lifeway, he pastored churches in Colorado and Tennessee. Mandrell graduated from Anderson University in 1998. He also holds a Master of Divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.

David Rech

David Rech is the president and founder of Scribe. He began Scribe in 1993 while at graduate school at The University of Pennsylvania. David’s work in the publishing world started with electronic publications and moved up towards the author. Under David’s direction, thousands of accessible publications have been created for delivery in traditional print, ebook, web-based, and other electronic formats.

Sam Richardson

Sam Richardson is Chief Executive of SPCK, the UK’s largest Christian publisher. Sam started his career on the graduate scheme at HarperCollins, where he progressed to run the Religion department. He then returned to publishing general books at Hodder & Stoughton before being appointed Chief Executive of SPCK in 2014. Under Sam’s leadership SPCK has won Specialist Consumer Publisher of the Year four times and has increased its income by 150%, by organic growth and by acquisitions of IVP UK and Lion Hudson. Sam is passionate about the life-changing power of Christian books and media, and is treasurer of Media Associates International in Europe. Sam is married to Sarah and is a father of three boys, with his free time dedicated mostly to running and soccer.

Matt Tully

Matt Tully serves as senior vice president of book and audio publishing at Crossway, where he has worked for over a decade. He is also the host of The Crossway Podcast, a weekly interview show featuring thoughtful conversations related to theology, church history, culture, and the Christian life. Matt holds an MA in historical theology from Wheaton College Graduate School. He and his wife, Lindsay, live in West Chicago, IL, with their three children.

Cory Verner

Cory began in the audiobook industry in 2003 founding christianaudio, a niche Audiobook publisher focused on thoughtful Christian audio content. christianaudio’s first sale was a download on christianaudio.com, one of the initial few audiobook download sites. Cory founded ONE Audiobooks in 2019 which now helps over 75 Christian publishers and ministries, publish, distribute, and market Christian audiobooks. ONE’s catalog is over 2k titles. Cory lives in San Diego with his wife Elle. They have two boys, Levi and Luke.