Chris has more than thirty years’ experience in publishing sales and marketing management.  He began as the southeast representative of the Two Continents Publishing Group and was hired by the Oxford University Press and transferred to New York in 1979.  As assistant sales manager, he was responsible for New England, Ingram, Baker & Taylor and Walden Books.  He joined Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, International as senior marketing manager responsible for international school, college, test and trade sales.  In 1984, he launched the U.S. division of Oxford, UK-headquartered Basil Blackwell, Ltd. In 1989 he joined Houghton Mifflin as international sales manager responsible for college, trade and reference.  As sales manager for Little, Brown & Co., he managed a field sales force of eleven, sales support, cooperative advertising, exhibits and conventions while sales grew from $47 million to $130 million.  He worked briefly as Director of Sales and Marketing for Walden Books’ Longmeadow Press before joining Chris Ward as a commission sales representative in the Mid-Atlantic States.  In 1997, he and Colwyn Krussman launched Parson Weems, expanding into New England at the behest of clients three years later.  A veteran of the U.S. Army, he was graduated from the University of Virginia and worked as a journalist, news photographer and managing editor of a monthly trade magazine before joining Two Continents.  He has served as a director of the National Association on Independent Publishers’ Representatives (NAIPR), the 115-year-old Association of Book Travelers (ABT), and the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), which named him Sales Representative of the Year.

Sean Concannon   New York, New York

Sean joined the company November 1996.  He is the former General Manager of Tower Books, Philadelphia where he supervised a staff of fifteen, purchased titles from more than 100 publishers and upgraded the store’s systems and promotion.  In his eight years with Tower Books and Records, Sean opened and renovated stores around the world including Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City.  At Tower headquarters, he was responsible for trouble-shooting branch store operations and hardware system problems.  Sean holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from George Mason University.

Linda Cannon  Baltimore, Maryland

Linda joined the company in 2003.  She spent eighteen years as an independent bookseller in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Kent, Ohio and was a commission rep in the mid-west and Texas.  She was then a house rep in the San Francisco Bay area.  Linda left publishing in 1986 and was marketing manager for a software company in Marin County, California for eight years then became operations manager of an Internet start-up company that prospers to this day.  She moved back east in 2003 for family reasons, and joyfully returned to publishing.  Linda moved to Baltimore in 2005 to better serve the southern part of the territory.  She became a partner in October, 2005.

Causten Stehle   White Plains, New York

Causten joined the team with a wide variety of experiences both in publishing and in the corporate world of pharmaceutical marketing.  In 1987, he began working at Routledge, Chapman and Hall in New York and over the course of nine years worked in the capacities of Sales Associate, Exhibits Manager and College Marketing Manager.  After his time at Routledge, he moved onto pharmaceuticals, where at Grey Advertising’s Medical Education division he was the Senior Associate for the Meetings Department and their Database Administrator. After receiving a Master of Science degree in Information Systems from Pace University in 2005, Causten began to refocus his interests and decided that corporate marketing was not among them, and that he missed publishing. Therefore, he is very happy to be back amongst old friends and colleagues, and to work with so many vibrant and exciting publishing programs.

Melanie Sutherland   Brooklyn, New York

In addition to maintaining the data management operations for Parson Weems, Melanie has worked with Chris Kerr in various capacities for 21 years.  Melanie is currently President of the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media, and produces the Blatant Self-Interest Networking Event at The Players.  She is a theatrical director and producer, and a member of The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and The League of Professional Theatre Women.  Melanie also designs and builds custom-made beaded bracelets.

Colwyn Krussman, Chair   Wilmington, Delaware

Colwyn is one of the best known book people in the Mid-Atlantic states, and is widely respected for his broad experience as a publisher, retailer and sales representative.  He retired from active selling in 2001 but remains in a leadership and administrative role with Parson Weems, which he co-founded.  A former instructor in history at Temple University and the University of Minnesota, Krussman is also a former publishing sales and marketing director, a long-time bookstore owner and general manager, and a former director Mid-Atlantic Booksellers’ Association.