| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Photos Available Upon Request
PACE UNIVERSITY'S NEWEST TRUSTEES ARE LEADERS IN MAGAZINE PUBLISHING AND E-COMMERCE
Now major players on the media landscape, David J. Pecker (BBA,‘73) who has completed more than $3.6 billion in magazine transactions, and Marie J. Toulantis (BBA ‘81), former Internet executive and senior banker, were once undergraduate students with big career aspirations at Pace University’s Lubin School of Business.
NEW YORK, March 10, 2009 – Pace University has announced the election of David J. Pecker and Marie J. Toulantis, magazine and book industry executives, respectively, to its Board of Trustees.
"Pace will benefit from the breadth and depth of innovation, marketing, sales and customer service expertise that David and Marie bring to the table,” said Aniello A. Bianco '61, Chair of the Pace Board of Trustees. “Their leadership experience in helping to build two sizable companies will be invaluable and serve as role models for our students. Their excellent Pace learning experience, borne out by their accomplishments, has inspired their continuing contributions to the University, and will make them outstanding trustees.”
Pecker and Toulantis join a third publishing industry leader, Richard F. Zannino (MBA ‘84), a global media and retail executive and the former Chief Executive Officer of Dow Jones & Company, who was elected to Pace’s board in December 2008.
Pecker, 57, is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Media, Inc. (AMI), which he has made the leading publisher of celebrity and health & fitness magazines including Star, National Enquirer, Shape and Men's Fitness. He assumed the AMI leadership in May, 1999. Today, the company's holdings also include Distribution Services Inc. (DSI), the leading supermarket in-store merchandiser, which controls 65% of the publication racks at checkout counters.
Since 2004, Pecker has overseen unprecedented growth in AMI’s advertising, with ad pages for its titles up 10.2 percent over the five-year period (including a 58 percent increase for Star) while industry totals in the same period were declining 8.7 percent.
Before acquiring American Media, Inc., Pecker was President and Chief Executive Officer of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, overseeing such titles as Woman’s Day, Elle, Home, George, Popular Photography and Car and Driver. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 1992 and was named President of Hachette Magazines, Inc. in September, 1991. Since September, 1990, Pecker had served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for Hachette Magazines, Inc., formerly Diamandis Communications Inc.
During his 20-year career in publishing, Pecker has completed more than $3.6 billion in magazine transactions.
According to Pecker, the son of a bricklayer who put himself through college, “Finding ways to continue to offer adequate financial aid assistance to students and their families during these challenging economic times will be a particular priority of mine as one of the newest members of Pace’s Board of Trustees.”
Toulantis, 54, is the former Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble.com. She first joined Barnes & Noble, Inc., the world’s largest bookseller, in 1997, and shortly thereafter oversaw Barnes & Noble.com’s $500 million initial public offering, one of the largest internet IPOs to be completed. Under her leadership, Barnes & Noble.com became one of the top e-commerce sites in terms of traffic and won numerous awards for outstanding customer experience and service.
In addition to her role as the chief executive of Barnes & Noble.com, Toulantis was also responsible for company-wide distribution and marketing, including the establishment and growth of the Barnes & Noble Member Program, a multi-million member loyalty program. Earlier, Toulantis served as a Senior Vice President at the Chase Manhattan Bank where she was responsible for the bank's relationships with mid-sized companies headquartered in Manhattan. She had been a part-time Pace student and full-time employee of Chase, which provided funding for her to complete her BBA in marketing/finance at Pace in 1981.
She has served on the Advisory Board of Lubin School of Business for the past seven years. In 2006, she was the honoree of the Lubin Alumni Achievement Award, and she was Executive-in-Residence in 2002.
Toulantis has also served as a director of the Hershey Corporation. Currently, she is an entrepreneur, working on a new technology venture.
“Over the last few years, as a member of the Lubin School Advisory Board, I’ve been impressed with the dedication and commitment of the outstanding faculty, students and staff,” said Toulantis. “I look forward to increasing my involvement as a trustee and collaborating with my fellow trustees on working to insure the continued success of Pace.”
About Pace. For 102 years Pace University has produced thinking professionals by providing high quality professional education resting on a firm base of liberal learning, amid the advantages of the New York metropolitan area. A private university, Pace has campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, enrolling nearly 13,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in its Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences (offering an MS in Publishing program), Lienhard School of Nursing, School of Education, School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. www.pace.edu
###
MEDIA CONTACT
Samuella Becker (MBA ‘87)
Public Information
Pace University
212-346-1637 or 917-734-5172
Sbecker2@pace.edu
|