Indigo Books & Music Inc. Management

Heather Reisman — Chief Executive Officer
Heather Reisman is the founder and CEO of Indigo Books & Music Inc., Canada’s largest book retailer.

Ms. Reisman was born in Montreal and educated at McGill University. For the first 16 years of her career she was Managing Director of Paradigm Consulting, the strategy and change management firm she co-founded in 1979. Paradigm was the world’s first strategic change consultancy and pioneered many organizational change strategies still in use today.

In 1992, Ms. Reisman left Paradigm to become President of Cott Corporation. During her tenure as President, Cott grew from a Canadian-based regional bottler to the world’s largest retailer-branded beverage supplier. Harvard wrote two case studies focusing on the company’s growth and development under her leadership.

In 1996, Ms. Reisman launched Indigo Books & Music Inc. Conceived as the booklovers’ cultural department store, bringing Indigo to life was the culmination and integration of a life long passion for books and music, and an entire career focused on understanding and building advanced organizations.

Ms. Reisman is a former Governor of McGill University and of the Toronto Stock Exchange. She has served on many North American boards including Magna International, Suncor, and Rogers Communications Inc., and continues to serve on the board of Onex Corporation, J. Crew Group Inc., and Right to Play. She is also a Director and Officer of Mount Sinai Hospital, and a member of the Bilderberg Steering Committee, a geo-political think group.

She is the recipient of several awards including Waterloo Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, University of Waterloo; International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award, University of Manitoba; and the John Molson School of Business Award of Distinction, Concordia University. In June 2006 she was the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Commerce Degree from Ryerson University. Ms. Reisman is the author of numerous articles, and is a frequent public speaker and television guest. Her goal is to build the Indigo/Chapters organization into the most valued retailer in the world for booklovers and their friends. Ms. Reisman is married to Gerald Schwartz, Chair and CEO of Onex Corporation. She has four children and seven grandchildren.

Jim McGill — Chief Financial Officer

Jim McGill joined Indigo in March, 2003 and is accountable for all corporate finance functions, as well as the facility management and legal groups. Jim brings strong operational and corporate finance experience in the retailing and distribution sectors. Prior to joining Indigo, Jim spent three years building the finance function at Grocery Gateway, a successful start-up company in the online retailing sector. Before that, he spent nine years in the finance group at Purolator, Canada's leading overnight courier company, where he was CFO for his last four years. Earlier in his career, Jim held positions with Deloitte & Touche and Proctor & Gamble. Jim holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario and a Bachelor of Applied Science, Mechanical Engineering, from the University of Waterloo.

Michael Serbinis — Chief Technical Officer

Mr. Serbinis joined Indigo in February 2006 and is responsible for technology development, strategy and operations. Prior to Indigo, Michael served as Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Marketing at Critical Path Inc., a leading provider of messaging software and services. Mr. Serbinis was instrumental in restructuring the company and securing over $100M U.S. of investment funds, launching new products and executing a strategic turnaround. Prior to joining Critical Path, Mr. Serbinis co-founded DocSpace Inc. where he led the development of the company's products and ultimate acquisition by Critical Path in 2000. Mr. Serbinis also worked on the first Internet based local search engine at Zip2 Inc., later acquired by Altavista; smart network routing technology at Microsoft Inc.; and high-temperature superconductor technology research, recognized internationally by Intel and NASA.

Mr. Serbinis holds a BSc degree in engineering physics from Queens University and an MSc degree in engineering from the University of Toronto. He is also the author of several patents in the area of Internet security, communications and mobile technology.

Deirdre Horgan — Executive Vice-President, Marketing

Ms. Horgan joined Indigo Books & Music Inc. in 1998 and is responsible for overall marketing and brand management in both the store and online businesses. In addition, she is responsible for our iRewards, Corporate Sales and Gift Card businesses. Previously, she worked as a management consultant with The Boston Consulting Group, working on strategic and brand development assignments in the consumer goods and retail industries. She is an economics graduate with high distinction from the University of Western Ontario, and is the recipient of several academic honours.

Eric Berthold — Senior Vice President, Lifestyle

Eric Berthold joined Indigo Books & Music Inc. in July 2004 and is responsible for defining Indigo’s approach to the Lifestyle category, which includes Gifts, Paper and more. Prior to joining Indigo, Eric was Vice President of Caban, a division of Club Monaco/Polo-Ralph Lauren where he was a founding director of the innovative Home Furnishing and Lifestyle retail concept and helped grow it to a $26 million business. Eric has also held senior positions on the editorial team of major North American publications such as Food & Wine and House & Garden magazines. A graduate of George Washington University in International Affairs, Eric combines sharp business acumen with a keen sense of style and trends.

Carolyn Beatty — SVP, Online

Carolyn Beatty joined Indigo in August of 2003 and is now responsible for overseeing the online business. In her first four years at Indigo, she lead the redesign of the online customer experience and the launch of a variety of new categories and functionality for the website and kiosk channels including Music, iPod, Toys, Photobook, GiftCards and French. Prior to joining Indigo, Carolyn spent five years as the VP of e-Marketing at the largest direct and interactive agency in Canada - Wunderman, a division of WPP. There she built an award-winning interactive practice which serviced a roster of blue chip North American accounts including Kraft, IBM, Ford, and Citibank. Prior to this, Carolyn worked for over 10 years in the advertising industry and earlier in her career in both magazine and book publishing. She holds an Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Toronto.

Joel Silver — Chief Merchant

Mr. Silver joined Indigo in December 2003 and is responsible for the trade print, music and DVD businesses across all channels. Prior to Indigo, Joel served as CEO in several start-up companies including SalesDriver, an online sales incentive company that he co-founded and then sold to the Carlson Marketing Group as well as Opencola, a pioneering search application sold to Open Text Software. Prior to these entrepreneurial ventures, Joel led the Ivory brand management team at Procter & Gamble as well as several other key category management roles.

Mr. Silver holds a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard School of Business and an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University. Mr. Silver continues to hold a teaching position at the Rotman School of Management where he has lectured for several years.

Tova White — Senior Vice-President, Human Resource/Organization Development

Tova White joined indigo in August 2002 and is responsible for Human Resources and Organization Development. Before joining Indigo, Tova worked for Bank of Montreal where she held a variety of roles in the Chairman's Office, Public Affairs and Human Resources. Tova holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Bishop's University and a Master's Degree in Economics from The London School of Economics and Political Science.