Christian Retailing

Ex-Ingram CEO Skip Prichard to 'move library services forward' Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Friday, 24 May 2013 01:00 AM America/New_York

David "Skip" Prichard, who resigned as CEO of Ingram Content Group in June 2012, has been appointed as the Online Computer Library Center's (OCLC) president and CEO.

Prichard will take over for Jay Jordan, who will retire June 30 after 15 years as OCLC president and CEO. Prichard will serve as OCLC president-elect, effective June 3, and will officially become president and CEO July 1.

"Skip Prichard is a proven leader with an outstanding record of accomplishment," said Sandy Yee, chairperson of OCLC's board of trustees and dean of Wayne State University Libraries and School of Library and Information Science. "He has guided leading library services organizations through eras of significant change, from print to electronic and from local to global. His experience and commitment to libraries will help us continue our work to move library services and cooperation forward—in the cloud, on mobile devices and through the collaborative work of libraries and partners around the world."

Prichard added: "OCLC has a long tradition of strong leadership and vision, and I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to lead the cooperative into what promises to be an exciting and challenging future. OCLC and member libraries are using the newest technologies available to move library services to the cloud where they continue to collaboratively build resources and infrastructure to share. I look forward to working with the talented OCLC staff and membership to ensure that we build on that momentum, and provide the resources necessary for libraries and librarians around the world to meet and exceed the increasing expectations of their users."

Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit service and research organization dedicated to improving access to the world's information and reducing library costs.

In a Christian Retailing report in 2011, Prichard, who was with Ingram for five years, said the company had restructured so that Christian products could be better distributed to any channel and other general market products could, in turn, be accessed by Christian stores.

"We want to do everything we can to help Christian stores survive and thrive," he said.

Spring Arbor, Ingram's wholesale distributor, has served the Christian market for nearly 30 years.