Katz, Donald R.

PERSONAL:

Married Leslie Larson; children: three. Education: New York University, B.A., 1974; attended University of Chicago; London School of Economics, M.Sc.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Montclair, NJ. Office—Audible, Inc., 65 Willowbrook Blvd., Wayne, NJ 07470.

CAREER:

Audible, Inc., Wayne, NJ, director and cofounder, 1995—, chairman of the board, 1999—, chief executive officer, 2001—. Previously worked as a business journalist and media consultant for companies, including Fidelity Investments, Whittle Communications, Wenner Media, Time Warner, and Mariah Publications.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Heartland Prize for nonfiction, Chicago Tribune, for The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears; named Entrepreneur of the Year, Silicon Alley, 1999; Entrepreneur of the Year Award for New Jersey, Ernst & Young, 2004.

WRITINGS:

The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears, Viking (New York, NY), 1987.

Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America, Aaron Asher Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Just Do It: The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World, Adams (Holbrook, MA), 1994.

The King of the Ferret Leggers and Other True Stories, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

The Valley of the Fallen and Other Places, AtRandom. com (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributing editor to periodicals, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Outside, Sports Illustrated, Men's Journal, and Worth.

SIDELIGHTS:

Donald R. Katz had a successful career as a business journalist and media consultant for twenty years before he cofounded Audible, Inc. in 1995. As its director, and later CEO and chairman, Katz piloted his Internet-based audio information and entertainment service company to a top-ten ranking in the Deloitte & Touche Fast Fifty competition in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

In 1987, Katz published The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears. Chicago-based Sears department store, which once represented one percent of the United States' gross national product, suffered hardships in the 1970s when discount retail outlets lured away many of its customers. In his book, Katz describes the chain's transformation to meet its challenges. A critic for the Management Review found that "this is one of the most riveting business stories ever written, presented in crisp prose, and studded with brilliant character sketches." Carl Ryant, in his Business History Review article, agreed that "Katz provides an interesting and well written, if perhaps over-long, tale." Writing in the New York Times, Karen W. Arenson stated: "For anyone who ever wondered how a company—any company—is run, this book provides much rich detail. Mr. Katz has done a monumental reporting job."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Business History Review, winter, 1988, Carl Ryant, review of The Big Store: Inside the Crisis and Revolution at Sears, p. 716.

Library Journal, May 15, 2001, Sue Samson, review of The King of the Ferret Leggers and Other True Stories, p. 135.

Management Review, January, 1988, review of The Big Store, p. 63.

New York Times, October 25, 1987, Karen W. Arenson, review of The Big Store.

ONLINE

Audible Web site,http://www.audible.com/ (January 19, 2007), author biography.

Forbes.com Web site,http://www.forbes.com/ (January 19, 2007), author profile.