Former BEA Event Director Steve Rosato Joins OverDrive

Former BookExpo America Event Director Steve Rosato has joined digital book distribution platform OverDrive as an international business development executive.

In an announcement on Monday, March 21, OverDrive announced that Rosato would be joining the company to help accelerate the business’ global expansion. Rosato announced on Tuesday, March 8, that he would be leaving his position as event director at BookExpo America after 18 years working for the book industry trade show.

Rosato told Bookselling This Week that he has thoroughly enjoyed working with independent booksellers throughout his career.

“Working at BEA, I’ve spent so much time with independent booksellers, in addition to publishers, whether it was at Winter Institute, working with ABA, or going to the regional trade shows, and I always felt so much more part of the industry working with booksellers,” Rosato said. “They have such powerful insights about what is good for the industry, what is good for BEA. I’ve gotten to know a lot of them and become friends with them, and I’ve always really valued and treasured my relationships with them.”

OverDrive, which is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten, supplies the industry’s largest catalog of eBooks, audiobooks, streaming video, and periodicals to 34,000 libraries, schools, and retailers worldwide, delivering all digital media on a single platform.

In addition to representing OverDrive’s catalogs and services for U.S. and English eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital media, Rosato will help identify and onboard digital books from all countries and languages that can be added to the OverDrive Marketplace.

“Steve’s industry knowledge and valuable global relationships will greatly serve OverDrive’s publishers and authors as we continue to open up new markets for their titles,” said OverDrive CEO Steve Potash. “This is a tremendous win for publishers and all suppliers of digital media as OverDrive invests in growth for our international markets.”

Rosato said the chance to join OverDrive has been an incredible opportunity.

“OverDrive’s significant growth, specifically internationally, aligns perfectly with my industry experience and relationships,” said Rosato, who was instrumental in the success of the BEA Global Market Forum program with China and Poland and in the recent trade mission to Cuba. “It is the chance to work across a number of global markets, continue in the publishing industry, and contribute to the growth that OverDrive is already experiencing that made this an ideal situation for me.”

During his years working with BEA, Rosato was responsible for many key initiatives, both domestic and international, including focusing on librarian attendance at BEA, establishing co-location partnerships with the International Digital Publishers Forum and the Book Bloggers Convention, and the inception of the Global Market Forum program.

As part of the Global Market Forum, Rosato negotiated directly with the Chinese government to have the largest-ever trade delegation of Chinese publishers visit the U.S. for BEA 2015,  and he worked with the Book Institute of Poland to have Poland as the Global Market Forum Country of Honor for BEA 2016.

In 2012, Trade Show Magazine recognized Rosato as one of 20 Industry Elite, and in 2010, he was recognized as the Industry Person of the Year by the Association of Author Representatives.