Reed Announces Changes in BEA Show Management

Greg Topalian will oversee a new business division at Reed Exhibitions.

On Wednesday, June 23, Reed Exhibitions announced that Greg Topalian, vice president and show manager for BookExpo America (BEA) since August 2000, has been tapped to oversee a new business division at the company. Christopher McCabe, most recently industry vice president for PGA Golf Exhibitions at Reed Exhibitions, will replace Topalian. McCabe will take over responsibility for all facets of BEA management effective immediately.

Topalian told BTW that he was looking forward to the new position, but that the advancement was "truly a bittersweet thing…. I'm excited about the career growth, but I'll very much miss the publishing and bookselling industry.

"I've worked in a lot of industries, and I've never worked with another industry [whose participants] have as much passion for their product. There's always such a celebratory feeling, I've never seen anything like it anywhere else I've worked."

Topalian also credited ABA and said the association has been a "phenomenal partner to both BEA and to me."

On behalf of the association, ABA COO Oren Teicher said, "All of us at ABA wish Greg the very best, though we'll miss him a lot. Greg developed an excellent relationship with ABA and with many of our individual members, and was largely responsible for the very smooth execution of the show these past years. He took the lead in helping us develop the Hotel ABA program, which has been a smashing success."

Topalian joined the staff of BEA in 1997, when he was named sales manager. He became group sales director in 1998, and director of strategic accounts in 1999.

Prior to joining Reed Exhibitions, McCabe worked at Time Warner in an integrated marketing position, which served several of the company’s consumer business and financial magazines. --Karen Schechner