Ex-CBA board member named interim head as Moe Girkins departs

Zondervan is looking for a new leader for the second time in less than six years.

President and CEO Maureen  "Moe" Girkins was to leave the company effective March 11, after it was announced that her contract was not being renewed.

The timing of her departure was a surprise to many—less than two weeks after the print debut of the updated New International Version (NIV), a major thrust for the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based business.

Appointed Interim President was Scott Macdonald, acting general manager of Zondervan's The City online church community unit since last December. He is a former member of the board of CBA, who previously led a Christian retail franchise group.

A newcomer to Christian publishing with a background in high-tech business, Girkins became the first woman to head Zondervan when she took over from Doug Lockhart in January 2008. He had held the posts for  two years, replacing longtime head Bruce Ryskamp.

Zondervan declined to comment on the reason for Girkins' leaving, noting that the search for a new CEO would begin immediately, with Macdonald working "closely with Zondervan's leadership team, which combined has more than 100 years of experience with the company."

Under Girkins' leadership, Zondervan—publisher not only of the best-selling translation in the NIV, but also the best-selling hardcover nonfiction title of all time, Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life—reorganized its management structure and began to pursue digital initiatives.

In addition to acquiring The City, an online communication and administration platform for churches, it also bought popular Christian Web site BibleGateway.com. The company introduced Symtio, a system intended to help bookstores share in digital sales by retailing cards with downloadable codes. It was scrapped last year after failing to gain traction.

The company had other setbacks during Girkins' time at the helm. Warren's still-awaited next book was twice delayed, and the company put off publication of Love is in the Mix, a cookbook by TV reality star Kate Gosselin after the mother of eight and co-author of the Zondervan best-seller Multiple Blessings went through a highly publicized divorce.

When the NIV update was announced in 2008, it fell to Girkins to announce that the Today's New International Version (TNIV), criticized from its 2002 debut for gender references, would be discontinued as part of the update process. Last year, she announced that Zondervan would pull from stores Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership by Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite, after it was criticized for insensitive use of Asian themes. 

But the company also saw successes under Girkins, winning Christian Book Awards from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) in 2008 and 2010 and being named CBA's Supplier of the Year in 2008.

Zondervan spokesperson Tara Powers said that Girkins' leaving would "in no way" impact the launch of the updated NIV. "Moe has played an integral role in getting us to this point in the release," she said.

Regarding the time frame for finding a permanent replacement, Powers said that Zondervan's parent company, HarperCollins, "is committed to taking the time needed to find the right person so there is no deadline set."

Girkins was a member of the board and vice chairman at ECPA, where President and CEO Mark Kuyper said that he had been surprised by the news. "I did not expect it," he said. "Publishing is at a stage where it's probably more challenging than it has ever been as we go through this digital revolution and transformation, but I do not know anything about the details of why it happened.

"From my perception, she was doing a fabulous job," Kuyper added. "She was transforming Zondervan and pushing it towards a very digitally focused future, and seemed to have made quite a bit of progress."

In the statement announcing the leadership changes, Zondervan said that Macdonald had more than 30 years' experience in sales and Christian retailing, and had "developed growth strategies and increased profitability at multiple companies."

Macdonald became president of Lemstone Christian Stores in 2004. The franchise group added a church store service in 2005, and Macdonald was appointed to the board of CBA in 2007. 

That same year, Lemstone was renamed Insight Retail Group and later was acquired by Parable Group, after which Macdonald departed. 

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