Eileen Gittins Founder, President, and CEO
Eileen says this is the most rewarding company she’s ever run, which is saying a fair amount as she has lived and worked all over the world with Kodak and as VP at Wall Data before and after the IPO, CEO of Personify (behavioral segmentation and analytics) and Verb (context search), outside Board Director at Qbiquity and Popular Demand.
Eileen never stopped photographing since her days studying photography, and that’s how Blurb got started. She wanted to create a beautifully designed and produced
photo essay book – something that looked like a book you’d buy at the bookstore – but she only needed 40 copies. This turned out to be remarkably painful, expensive, and time-consuming – and she thought that was just wrong. So she founded Blurb.
Eileen’s favorite quote: “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” (Gandhi)
Eileen’s first Blurb book: Five Hours in Napa
Pete Wheelan COO
After business school, law school, and building other people’s businesses at Boston Consulting Group, Pete built his own adventure travel company. He co-founded AdventureSeek and sold it to Unexplored, then played a key SVP role at Lonely Planet before taking off for a new adventure: Blurb.
Intrepid as ever, Pete is responsible for Blurb’s growth in leaps and bounds and
crosses the ocean daily just to get here (via the Golden Gate Bridge).
Pete’s favorite quote: “I once felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes – until I met a man who had no feet.” (Unknown)
Pete’s first Blurb book: A Retrospective: The First 12 Months in the Life of a Rambunctious Little Mugget Named Luke
Greg Dotson CTO
He’s done enterprise software (VP Product Development, Unicru), he’s done Web content (CTO, adam.com), he’s done community and search (CIO, Guru), and he’s done graphics (Software Engineer, Intergraph). But what Greg likes the most about Blurb is that he gets to put it all together with a customer-facing application and the short delivery cycles of the Web.
And for the very first time, his mother can describe to her friends what her son does.
Greg’s favorite quote: “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” (Sir Tony Hoare)
Greg’s first Blurb book: Cooking With Pocky
Robin Goldberg Senior VP Global Channels and Partnerships
World traveler. Brand builder. Robin’s both. She even found a job that combined the two when she was in charge of Global Marketing for Lonely Planet, the largest independent travel publisher. That’s where she developed successful strategic partnerships of global proportions. She’s been to five out of seven continents, has an MBA from The Wharton School, and she’s led marketing efforts at ClickAction, Nestle, and Clorox.
What’s her next big adventure? Putting Blurb on the map, of course.
Robin’s favorite quote: “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” (Anatole France)
Robin’s first Blurb book: A Love Story--The First Fifty Years
Bruce Watermann Senior VP Print Operations
Bruce has been in the business of making other people’s stuff look good for over 30 years now. Just ask Apple, HP, Wal-Mart, Costco, Getty Images, Corbis Corporation, and Columbia Records – he’s helped them all. From his early days running a high-end professional color lab to managing Corbis’ vast worldwide scanning operations, Bruce knows print ... and Bruce knows color ... and Bruce knows quality. And as a former portrait, wedding, and commercial photographer, he also knows photography.
He’s a good guy to know.
Bruce’s favorite quote: “If a man only likes victory he must always come late for the battle.” (G.K. Chesterton)
Bruce’s first Blurb book: Mariner Memories (Seattle Mariners, that is)
Chad Jennings VP of Design and User Experience
Chad was the face behind many an interface during his days at Method, putting his “useful, usable, and desirable” motto to work for splashy brands like Gucci, Macromedia, Reuters, HP, Samsung, and Palm. His concoction of tech savvy and people skills landed him a master’s degree in Human-Centered Design and a gig at SmartDesign, giving consumer products a friendly interface – until Blurb enticed him into the world of book creation interfaces as employee number one.
No Blurb project would be complete without Chad’s signature sound effects: “Da-jink!” for links followed, and “Clonk!” when an interface element plops into place.
Chad’s favorite quote: “Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.” (Yoda)
Chad’s first Blurb book: Just Add Water and Stir: An Homage to Banana Bread Flavor Instant Oatmeal (and Andy Warhol)
Brent Baker Vice President, Ecommerce
Brent’s been involved in the development of world-class products, with an eye towards operational scale, for nearly 15 years. His professional journey started when he helped Sportvision innovate how to produce and distribute sports media. He then headed west to lead eCommerce and user registration platforms for CNET Network’s portfolio of Web properties. At Blurb HQ, Brent heads up the many platforms we use to ensure that customers can transact in variety of currencies, that authors and partners are
compensated, and that thousands of people receive Blurb books on a daily basis, all on a global scale.
Brent’s favorite quote: “Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should have accomplished with your ability.” (John Wooden)
Brent’s first Blurb book: Celebrating 50 years... The life and love of Louis & Jacqueline Phillips
