American Booksellers Association president Jamie Fiocco announced Friday that Allison K. Hill will take over as ceo of the organization on March 1. She has been president and CEO of Vroman’s Bookstore, in Pasadena, CA. She will succeed Oren Teicher, who is retiring after 10 years of the leading the ABA. The association’s senior program officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger will be promoted to COO, as of November 1, when Teicher will officially relinquish his duties as ceo.
Hill says in the announcement, “I can’t think of a better opportunity to exercise my passion for books, bookstores, and changing the world through business than as the CEO of ABA. Bookselling has always been a dream job for me, and now I’m trading one dream job for another: the opportunity to re-energize the conversation for our industry and initiate changes that are necessary for us to create a sustainable model. This is a challenging era for booksellers, one that requires new thinking and new partnerships. It’s an exciting time and I am honored and excited to take on this new role.”
Hill has led Vroman’s since 2013, after first joining the store in 2004. She began her career in the book industry with Simon & Schuster and Waterstone’s in Boston, and was general manager of Book Soup before joining Vroman’s. She received an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management this year.