Directors
The principals of
Ringgold are information professionals
from a variety of backgrounds and
experience.
Chief Executive
Officer & Chief Financial Officer
Dr.
Ralph M. Shoffner
Ralph
M. Shoffner, DLS, provides logistical
planning and organizational support for
all business activity of Ringgold. His
wife, Alice Shoffner, actively assists in
customer support. For OpenRFP,
Ralph maintains the catalog of functional
descriptors and associated XML tags for
describing vendor products and services.
The various features, benefits, and
statements about functionality are used by
libraries as specifications for online
RFPs. Ralph's doctorate is in Library
Science.
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Chief Operating
Officer
Donald Chvatal
Don
has over 40 years of executive experience,
developing and applying new information
systems technology. Don is also a
librarian and former bookseller. He has
consulted to libraries and and suppliers
on management and automation issues. Since
2005 Don has served as President of
Ringgold, now developing and maintaining
two databases serving the needs of
publishers: Identify,
a registry of standard institutional
metadata, and Book
News, a
book reviewing service creating overviews
of newly-published monographs in all
scholarly disciplines.
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Chief Marketing Officer
Laura Cox
Laura operates Ringgold's Sales and
Marketing arm, leading decisions on customer
relationships and Ringgold's outward facing
strategy. She was a publishing consultant
for nearly ten years, working with a variety
of international clients including
publishers, intermediaries and trade
associations. She has extensive experience
in strategic marketing and sales, market
research, data analysis, and project
management. She created the Consortium
Directory Online which was acquired by
Ringgold in September 2011.
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Favourite
book: An Introduction to
Mathematics by Alfred North
Whitehead.
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Favourite
book: Sweet Promised Land by
Robert Laxalt. |
Favourite book:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams. |
Sales
and Marketing Team
Ringgold's
sales team are dedicated to helping you
reveal new
opportunities and potential in the wider
market.
Sales Director,
Americas - Christine Orr
Christine has spent
more than 20 years in STM publishing with both
commercial houses and not-for-profit societies.
She has extensive experience developing marketing
and sales campaigns for legacy journals and their
companion online editions, negotiating consortia
licenses, and tailoring products and policies to
achieve success in the institutional library
market. Christine also holds a Master of Science
degree in Library and Information Science. Our key
contact for all North American clients, she is
also involved in enhancing Ringgold’s existing
products to serve our growing customer base.
Favourite book: Hotel
New Hampshire by John Irving.
Sales Consultant,
Europe - Diane Cogan
Diane has
worked in the STM publishing industry for over 30
years. After obtaining her degree in Biochemistry,
Diane spent 28 years in a variety of Reed-Elsevier
companies working on publishing programmes in the
hard sciences and in the social sciences and on
developing and implementing publishing strategy.
Diane has worked with Ringgold since 2010,
developing new customer relationships and working
with existing customers in the UK and Europe.
Favourite book:
Persuasion by Jane Austen.
Publishing
& Libraries Relations Manager - Jean Brodahl
A medieval art historian
by training, Jean has been enjoying the worlds
of academic publishing and college libraries
since she began at Book News in
2001. Within the library sector, she closely
monitors current trends in library acquisitions,
including demand driven acquisition, and library
database systems. For publishers, she maintains
close contact with publicity and marketing
departments to ensure our services meet their
needs.
Favourite book: Don Quixote by Miguel de
Cervantes.
Customer Support Manager - Giselle Rawlins
After graduating with a
first class honours degree in Information
Management, Giselle was initally employed by BBC
Information & Archives as the principal
researcher within the Negative Checks section. Having worked for five years
within the Ringgold Data Management Team as first
a researcher and then Assistant Data Manager, she
now supports the sales team and is responsible for
training and external communications.
Favourite book: Mary Queen
of Scots by Antonia Fraser.
Accounts
Manager - Jackie Bennett
Jackie originally started
her career as a main frame computer operator.
After a career break, she worked in finance for
Lovell Homes. She now has 31 years experience in
purchase and sales ledger, credit control, banking
and financial control. Her main responsibilities
within Ringgold are the paying and sending of
invoices, controlling the bank accounts and
financial reporting.
Favourite book: Gone With
The Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
Production
Team
Ringgold's production
team are passionate
about ensuring
data accuracy and quality.
Production Manager -
Michelle Koster
Michelle
began her career in the Customer Service
Department of Swets Information Services, UK
after reading Philosophy at Exeter University.
After a brief spell in the Marketing Department
of Professional Books, a Butterworth Company,
she became freelance. She has over 20 years'
experience in publishing and the information
industries, including research, project
management, indexing, marketing, and editorial
roles. Michelle manages the Production Team,
both research and editorial staff, and is the
main contact point for Ringgold’s Identify
customers.
Favourite
book: Possession by A S Byatt.
Data Manager -
Phil Nicolson
After
graduating with a first class honours
degree in Computational Physics, Phil
spent a number of years focussing on
large IT projects in the academic and
financial sectors, primarily in
development or consultancy roles. He
then was Data Governance Manager for
the Royal Society of Chemistry before
joining Ringgold. Phil is responsible
for data
governance and the
management of customer data.
Favourite
book: Archery: The Art of Repetition by
Simon Needham.
Chief Editor - Ankie
Visschedijk
Ankie worked
for the BBC and a variety of media companies
after obtaining a post-graduate degree in
Information Science at Strathclyde University.
She also has an MSc in Forestry from the
Agricultural University of Wageningen. Ankie is
responsible for maintaining the data quality for
the Identify database.
Favourite
book: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by
David Mitchell.
Classifications Editor -
Rachel Taylor
Rachel is a
graduate BA (Hons) and MA librarian from the
University of Central England (now Birmingham
City University), with over 20 years experience
within business information services and
software houses. Her main responsibility is
ensuring the accuracy of Ringgold tiers. She
also ensures editorial policy for the database
is carried out and coordinates new version
releases of the Identify database.
Favourite
book: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Gouge.
Research Team Manager -
Kelley Hewson
Kelley
is an information specialist with previous
experience in corporate, medical, legal, and
academic libraries as well as in the museum and IT
sectors. She has a Masters in Library and
Information Science from University of California,
Los Angeles as well as a History Masters from the
University of Edinburgh. Kelley is responsible for
the Research Team and for quality control of the
Identify database.
Favourite book: The Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
CDO Editor
- Moritz Schick
Before
joining Ringgold, Moritz worked for more than ten
years as a researcher for publishers and media
companies in Germany and the UK. He has an MA in
history and sociology from the Humboldt University
in Berlin and a MSc in Information Science from
the City University in London. Moritz became
Ringgold's CDO Editor after several years on the
Research Team.
Favourite book: Confessions of Zeno by Italo
Svevo.
Book News
Senior Editor - Eithne O'Leyne
As
senior editor Eithne oversees all aspects of
publication at Book News. She has worked for the
company since 2008. Before moving to the Pacific
Northwest to play the fiddle and grow kale, she
studied environmental science at CSU Monterey Bay.
Favorite Book: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx.
Book News Associate
Editor - Corinna Andrews
Corinna
has been editing reviews for Book News since 2010.
She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from
California State University, Chico.
Favorite book: The Botany of Desire by Michael
Pollan.
Book
News Inventory Control Specialist - Sylvia
Hackthorn
Sylvia
has been in the book business for over 30 years.
She reviews and manages new titles for our Book
News subsidiary. Besides working with books Sylvia
is a music composer and performer.
Favourite book: The Song of The Lark by Willa
Cather.
Book News Technical
Specialist - Emily Aslin
Emily has been at Book News for
10 years. A lifelong maven of all things art,
craft, and design, she finds inspiration in
cutting edge technology as well as in the beauty
of pre-digital craft.
Favorite book: A Song of Ice and Fire series by
George R.R. Martin.
Book News Bibliographic
Assistant - Crystalyn Frank
Crystalyn
started at Book News in January of 2013 after
moving to Portland, OR from Olympia, WA. She has a
BA from the Evergreen State College.
Favorite books: the Harry Potter series by JK
Rowling.
Technical
Development Team
Ringgold's
technical developers have customer needs
at the forefront of our product expansion.
Programming Manager - William Haase
Bill has
over 37 years of experience in computing
administration and development. He created a
business services company in 1983 providing
programming, data conversion, direct marketing,
on demand printing and more, for 23 years. After
joining Ringgold in January 2008, he was tasked
with designing and developing Ringgold’s
enterprise style, authority and auditing
production systems for the Identify service. He
additionally provides IT administration, web and
database development and staff support.
Favourite book: The
Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J R R Tolkien.
Researchers
Our hard-working team of
40 researchers audit your subscription data and
create new institutional records for the Identify
database, which spans almost every country in the
world. This requires not only expertise in a
variety of languages but a degree-level education
and information research backgound. Members of our
team are fluent in languages as diverse as
Japanese, Russian, Malaysian and even Ottoman
Turkish! We also have State experts covering the
USA and a dedicated UK researcher. Whatever and
wherever the institution, we're sure to find it.
Map to show
our international expertise and researcher
information. Click icons for staff photos and
details:
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