Meghan Goel, president of the board of the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association and the children’s book buyer at Bookpeople in Austin, Texas, announced Wednesday that the organization has hired Laura Ayrey, 33, to be their new executive director. She is replacing Lisa Knudsen who is retiring after 23 years at the helm. Ayrey, who grew up in Goshen, N.Y., began her professional career in film publicity and distribution in New York City at Miramax. She has been employed at Gibbs Smith, Publisher in Layton, Utah since 2003 -- first as a publicist and, for the past four years, as director of marketing and their trade sales rep manager.
Even though she and Knudsen will begin the transition Thursday with a phone conversation, followed by a face-to-face meeting after Christmas, Ayrey will officially assume her new responsibilities at MPiBA Dec. 20. Knudsen will guide her through the transition, which is expected to extend through early January. Ayrey will work from a home office in Park City, Utah and will hire an assistant there to assist her.
In a phone interview with PW, Ayrey said that her primary goal will be to “bring MPiBA to the forefront as far as brand awareness” and to help strengthen member bookstores, both in terms of strengthening the community and in terms of helping to increase store sales.
Ayrey attended the MPiBA annual trade show in Denver for the first time this fall. She said that she attended the show to meet with sales reps, and only subsequently, decided to apply for the position. “It all worked out so perfectly, like it was meant to be,” she said.
Goehl said that there were 20 applicants for the position, and that the nine-member MPiBA board was “unanimous” in their decision to hire Ayrey. “She has a lot of experience and energy,” said, “We’re really excited about this decision and where [Ayrey] can take us.”
MPiBA was founded in 1975 and includes 167 independent bookstores hailing from 13 western and southwestern states.
Ayrey is the third executive director to be hired by a regional booksellers association this year. This fall, the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association hired Deborah Leonard to replace Jim Dana, who joined the Peace Corps, and the Midwest Booksellers Association hired Carrie Obry to replace Susan Walker, who is moving to North Carolina to care for her aging parents.
