Kristen McLean

Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Bookigee, Inc.

Bookigee is a Miami-based company developing a wide range of applications and services for helping the publishing industry transform itself in the digital age. As Bookigee’s ringleader, Kristen oversees all aspects of company vision, team building, capital fundraising, development strategy, industry partnerships, and the cheering-on of Bookigee’s talented team. Before founding Bookigee, Kristen spent seventeen years in publishing in a wide variety of roles including her most-recent position as the Executive Director of the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), a non-profit trade association that networks the children’s book market. Under Kristen’s leadership, ABC merged with its larger sister association, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) in 2011, where its work continues. Kristen holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and has done graduate work in Graphic and Industrial Design at Massachusetts College of Art.  As part of her role as an industry strategist, Kristen lectures nationally and internationally on issues facing the publishing world at venues such as Book Expo America (BEA), Digital Book World (DBW), The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI),The American Library Association (ALA), and The Digital Publishing Conference of the City College of London, UK.  Kristen also editsBowker Pubtrack’s bi-annual consumer study of the children’s book market, Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age. Kristen is deeply interested in the confluence of emerging consumer behavior, technology, and publishing in the 21st Century. Find out more at www.kristenmclean.org.