New York, N.Y., USA - April 29, 2016, New York, N.Y., USA - Barnes & Noble founder and chairman, Leonard Riggio, will retire as chairman of the company following the annual shareholder meeting currently planned for September.
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Mr. Riggio intends to remain on its board of directors. Starting with a single college bookstore in 1965, Mr. Riggio built one of the largest enterprises in the history of American retail. He has become widely known as a visionary in the bookselling industry, and as a brilliant marketer and entrepreneur.
Over his lifetime, in addition to building Barnes & Noble into one of the largest retail organizations in America, Mr. Riggio also founded Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, one of the largest contract operators of bookstores on college and university campuses in the United States, and GameStop, the world’s largest videogame retailer. In all, the enterprises he created operate more than 8,000 stores and employ more than 100,000 people.
Mr. Riggio is also well known for his philanthropic work in the areas of public education, civil and human rights, literacy and the arts. In all, Mr. Riggio has served on nearly two dozen not-for-profit boards.
He has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Baruch College of the City University of New York, Bentley College, Adelphi University, Tusculum College and Long Island University.
He has been inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs at Babson College and the Texas A&M Retail Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the board of The Fund for Public Schools of New York.
His commitment to promoting equality and diversity has earned Mr. Riggio numerous awards including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Frederick Douglass Medallion.
In 2002, he received the Americanism Award from the Anti-Defamation League, its highest honor. The award cited his work “to celebrate diversity and make the dream of freedom and equality a reality for so many Americans.â€
In 2009, Mr. Riggio served as the Chairman of the host committee for the 100th Anniversary celebration of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights group.
The Board has appointed Paul B. Guenther to serve as non-executive Chairman upon Mr. Riggio stepping down.
Mr. Guenther, former President of Paine Webber Group, Inc., has been a member of the Barnes & Noble Board since 2015 and serves as Chair of the Audit Committee. Mr. Guenther currently serves as a Director of ZAIS Group Holdings, a NASDAQ-listed investment company focusing on investments in specialized credit strategies.
He also serves as Director of Guardian Life Insurance, a Fortune 250 financial services company and one of the largest individual disability income insurance providers in the U.S. and Chairman of Community & Southern Holdings, a community bank.
Mr. Guenther serves as the Chairman of the executive committee at Lenox Hill Hospital and serves as a Director of Fordham University, where he previously served as Chairman of the Board. ■