Steve Potash

Steve Potash is President and CEO of OverDrive, Inc., a company that he founded in 1986. Under his leadership, OverDrive has become a leading global distributor of copyrighted eBooks and more for publishers, studios, and media producers in the US and abroad to a network of thousands of libraries, schools, and retailers worldwide.

Steve has been active in the electronic publishing industry since the 1980s, when he developed interactive diskette and CD-ROM media products for professionals, students, and consumers. In the 1990s, Steve moved OverDrive into print-to-digital conversion services for publishers, and ecommerce solutions for retailers in the trade, academic, and consumer markets.

Steve launched OverDrive’s flagship content distribution service in 2000, creating a global network that today serves libraries, schools, retailers, OEMs, and publishers in more than 20 countries. OverDrive’s catalog now features digital content in more than 50 languages and houses one of the largest catalogs of EPUB eBooks in the world.

Steve has served as President and as a Board member for the International Digital Publishing Forum, an international standards body and trade association for digital book applications. Steve’s experience and knowledge about digital rights management, intellectual property issues, and electronic publishing has led to many speaking engagements in the US and abroad. He has authored a number of articles and white papers on digital rights management and electronic publishing. Through his collaboration with the federal and state agencies, Steve has worked extensively for improved digital media accessibility for the visually impaired and blind.

Prior to OverDrive, Steve was active in the practice of law, served as Special Counsel to the Ohio Attorney General, served as an acting Municipal Judge, and authored technology columns for the American Bar Association Journal. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he earned a B.A. in Journalism from The Ohio State University and his J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He is currently licensed to practice law in Ohio and federal courts. He lives in Cleveland with his wife Loree.

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