Dr. Hannes Blum
President and Chief Executive Officer, AbeBooks, Inc
Hannes holds a Masters degree in Business and Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe and a PhD in business from the Otto Beisheim School of Management (WHU) in Germany. Hannes started his career with the Boston Consulting Group in strategy consulting. He then co-founded JustBooks in 1999 and became President and CEO at AbeBooks Inc - the world’s largest marketplace for new, used, rare and out-of-print books and a top 100 Internet Retailer - following the acquisition of JustBooks by AbeBooks in October 2001. During his tenure at AbeBooks, three companies have been acquired under his leadership (Iberlibro.com, BookFinder.com and Fillz.com) and AbeBooks also made a 40% investment in the leading social networking site for booklovers, LibraryThing.com. Hannes has won various industry awards, including being named Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young for the Consumer Category in the Pacific Region in 2003. He's an active investor in several internet related businesses (including Suite101 in Vancouver, BC, Conducive Corp. in New York, and two Victoria, BC-based firms Teampages Inc. and Indochino Inc). He also serves on three other Boards of Directors besides his mandate at AbeBooks Inc.

 

After receiving a Masters of Fine Art at the University of Pennsylvania and then spending five years as a New Mexican hippy, David Margolis worked at Swann Galleries, in New York City from 1975 to 1979. He started the photography department and handled all the visual and ephemeral material. He spent seven years on the Board of Governors of A.B.A.A. and has written numerous catalogs, including a census of western books illustrated with original photographs in the holdings of the DeGolyer Library in Dallas.

Jean Moss has had a life-long interest in old books and paper. She has a degree in English and Theatre from William and Mary College. After years of work in various “professions” – airline stewardess, actress, waitress, retail fashion, encyclopedia salesperson, ski instructor, etc. she finally found her calling in the rare book field. She was on the Board of Governors of A.B.A.A. for four years.

Since 1979, Margolis & Moss have been dealing in fine books, prints, photographs and printed ephemera. After having an open shop in Santa Fe for eighteen years, they moved to a spacious book room adjacent to their home and work by appointment. Their inventories have always been varied, with an emphasis on the exotic and unusual. Nineteenth century photography and printed ephemera have always been strong interests, while Western Americana, juvenile books, maps, prints and general antiquarian books sustained them through the years they kept an open shop. They presently have a smaller, but select inventory and welcome visitors, while struggling (often in vain) to keep their web site loaded with the inventory that sits in the book room. During their twenty five plus years in business, they have built and sold numerous collections, starting with the collection of photo related ephemera, the sale of which took them on their first European trip together in 1986. Jean has recently catalogued for sale her thirty year collection of books designed and illustrated by Margaret and Helen Maitland Armstrong. They have been members of ABAA since 1984 and members of the Ephemera Society of America since its inception in 1980.