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Better World Books In the News
Press Releases

Awards


Leadership Bios

David Murphy
President & CEO

Better World Books President and CEO David Murphy has spent more than two decades in corporate finance, operations and mergers and acquisitions with firms such as The First Boston Corporation, Hutchinson SA (a French subsidiary of the Total Energy Group), and International Paper Company (a premonition of things to come?). He has served as CFO, COO, CEO for both privately held and publicly traded firms in the manufacturing, health care services and technology sectors. Additionally, he served on both corporate and non-profit boards and was a key mentor and advisor to Better World Books through the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Notre Dame before becoming President and CEO of the company in August, 2004. David remains actively involved in the field of Social Enterprise through the Gigot Center at Notre Dame as well as several other Social Enterprise Associations. David graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1980 from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Economics. He also received his MBA in 1984 from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, although he remains loyal to the Fighting Irish.

David is not only the CEO — he’s also the elder statesman of the bunch.

Christopher 'Kreece' Fuchs
Co-Founder & COO

Kreece graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After working briefly in engineering and in education, Kreece returned to Notre Dame to complete the requirements for med school in 2003. But drawn to the appeal of the growing social impact attained by Better World Books since its inception, Kreece decided to postpone his entry into med school and he currently oversees all of the company's operations and logistics from its primary location in Mishawaka, Indiana.

"Kreece", which is "Chris" pronounced with a French accent, loves to play Canon in D on the piano and Ultimate Frisbee, but not at the same time.

Xavier Helgesen
Co-Founder, Chief Information and Business Development Officer

Xavier graduated Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame (seeing a pattern here?) with a degree in Management Information Systems. Before co-founding Better World Books, Xavier founded and sold 3bstudios.com, a successful and profitable college community portal company. Xavier served as the original software architect of Better World Books’ proprietary software (known as Indaba) technology and continues to oversee key aspects of technology development while also serving as the company’s head of both domestic and international business development efforts.

Xavier lives in San Francisco, California, with his family of bicycles.

Paul Sansone
Chief Financial Officer

Paul graduated from Saint Francis University with two degrees conferred from the Honors Program in Accounting and Economics. He later earned his MBA degree from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Paul served as vice president of finance with Scientific Atlanta, a $3 Billion Cisco Company, located in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He also worked in various financial management roles over six years in IBM's Networking Division, located in North Carolina and at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) as an audit supervisor in their New York City practice.

Paul is an avid sports fan and is the first person to attend a home game at every NFL stadium in one season ("The Gauntlet"), a Guinness World Record. His notable achievement was a charity fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and covered by a weekly column in USATODAY.com as well as appearances on the Bob and Tom nationally syndicated radio show. He is also, in our opinion, a very very funny guy.

Dustin Holland
Vice President of Acquisitions

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” This is an idiom that fueled Dustin to launch the Better World Books Library Discards & Donations program in 2004. After talking with more than 100 librarians about the challenges of discarded book disposals Dustin had an epiphany that has translated into the reuse of more than 10 million books, 680,000 pounds of reclaimed library shelving and millions of dollars in contributions to nearly 1000 library partners nationwide. As vice president, Dustin oversees all of the company’s book acquisitions from libraries, campuses and communities nationwide. Dustin graduated from the Terry College of Business at The University of Georgia (2001). Shortly thereafter, he earned his MBA with a concentration in International Business from Georgia State University (2004). The boundless visionary is based in Atlanta, Georgia, drives a hybrid vehicle at times, and loves to explore the world outside of books.

Some of Dustin’s best friends are librarians.

Andy Warzon
Chief Technology Officer

Andy graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame (no comment) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Along with Better World Books' co-founder Xavier Helgesen, Andy co-founded and sold 3bstudios, the same successful and profitable college community portal venture referenced in the above bio on Xavier. Andy spent four years after graduation working in high-tech engineering and contract management before joining Better World Books in January, 2006. Based in South Bend, Indiana, Andy serves as VP of Technology and is responsible for IT infrastructure, internal software, online presence, and data analytics & pricing at BWB.

Andy stays busy by taking a ridiculous number of pictures of his baby son, following the Fighting Irish pretty obsessively, doing nerdy stuff, and just generally livin' the dream in Granger, Indiana.

John Ujda
Vice President of Marketing

John has 10 years of Marketing experience, layered on top of a strong technical background. John previously served as vice president of product management at Primedia and as director of product management at EarthLink. He taught Math, English, Chemistry and Physics to 11th and 12th grade students for 2.5 years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Papua New Guinea. And he started his career in information technology at Procter & Gamble. John graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame with dual degrees in Computer Engineering and Spanish. He earned his MBA with honors from Emory University's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, GA. John drives a hybrid vehicle all the time, likes brussel sprouts, and shamelessly reads sci-fi. By the way, his last name is pronounced 'wee-da'.

Maura Varian
UK Managing Director

Maura joined BWB in 2006. Her original role was as logistics manager, supervising the movement of books from the Universities and Libraries across the country to our warehouse facility in Mishawaka, Indiana and worked to formulate a distribution chain that meets BWB's unique needs. She came to us with a history in the data management field specializing in Direct Mail Marketing where she spent her day managing the flow of terabytes of data from one database to another.

Maura is a graduate from Indiana State University in South Bend with a degree in General Studies. Maura will be relocating to Better World Books' United Kingdom office in the Fall of 2009 where she will be in charge of the Edinburgh Scotland Distribution Center.

Indaba
Chief Shamaness

Indaba is Better World Books’ mystical statistical creature of intrigue, and coyly declines to submit any of her biographical particulars. It is known that she has a strong background in software development, and is well known for her otherworldly powers of calculation, processing, and extreme benevolence.