[HTML1]More about John Kilcullen
John Kilcullen is best known as the creator and publisher of the … For Dummies brand of how to books that has gone on to sell over 200 million copies in over 30 languages.
He was a founding member of the start up in 1990 and took this independent book publisher from $0 to over $240 million in revenues in 10 years … despite never having published a book before.
John led the company through a decade of hyper growth – making it the fastest growing independent publisher in the 90s – including the acquisitions of Cliffs Notes, Frommers Travel Guides, bestselling cookbooks like How to Cook Everything by New York Times columnist Marc Bittman and over 1000 other general reference titles.
John successfully took this “little publisher that could” public and later sold to John Wiley and Sons in 2001.
He then went on to transform Billboard magazine and was publisher of Nielsen’s Music, Film and Literary Group including The Bookseller, Kirkus Reviews, Backstage and The Hollywood Reporter.
He is currently the Executive Chairman of Fast Pencil and on the board of directors of the Copyright Clearance Center while running his own management consulting boutique, Brand Revolution LLC based in the Bay area.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of John’s biggest risk: launching the first For Dummies book in November, 1991. From computers to Golf to Guitars to yes, Sex For Dummies … John defied conventional wisdom every step of the way.
John has received numerous awards including FOLIO Magazine’s Top 40 Media Executives and Min Magazine’s “21 Most Intriguing People” in 2006 in addition to Ernst & Young’s 1999 Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the 1995 Advertising Age Marketing 100 award. John was named a recipient of The Irish America Magazine Business 100 award in 1999 and 2003.
He has been profiled in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today and PEOPLE, Forbes and SUCCESS magazines. He has been seen on CNBC, CNN, and popular talk shows in Australia, Canada, Singapore and the UK.
As an award-winning entrepreneur, brand-builder and global content publisher with over 25 years experience in print (book, magazine, newspaper), internet radio, spoken word audio, digital (d2c and b2b), mobile (US, Canada and Japan), video, conferences, events, trade shows (US, Europe and Asia), television award shows (FOX; Telemundo), joint ventures (AEG, Hanshin, Microsoft), international publishing and licensing (IP, brand and data) businesses.
As both a CEO (IDG Books Worldwide/Hungry Minds) and President/Group Publisher (VNU/Nielsen Business Media) he has managed multiple media brands and business units in consumer and enterprise markets both domestically and internationally. He launched international affiliates in Australia, Canada, India and Singapore and branded restaurants (Billboard Live) in 4 cities in Japan. He was the first American publisher to publish a computer book in China.
As President and Publisher of the Nielsen Business Media Music and Literary Group from 2003 to 2008 based in New York City, he led the redesigns of Billboard, Radio & Records and the Bookseller (on schedule and below budget), launched billboard.biz (b2b), re-launched Billboard.com (b2c; 4 million unique visitors) and conceived of multiple conferences that were profitable at launch.
He increased annual revenues across the group by $8.9 million (30%) and improved operating income by 62% across three years. He was promoted to an expanded Group Publisher role in 2006 adding the film and performing arts group to his portfolio and relocated to Los Angeles. He was the first executive to be both publisher of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter at the same time where he re-launched The Hollywood Reporter and THR.com.
Prior to that transforming Billboard, John was founding member of IDG Books Worldwide. He led this continuous content company from start-up to over $240 million in annual revenues in 10 years. Under his leadership, the company created the For Dummies™ brand with over 100 titles and over 100 millions copies in print including dozens of bestsellers on the New York Times, Business Week, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers lists. As the creator and publisher of the For Dummies™ brand, he architected the organic growth and global brand development strategy including numerous licensed properties (spoken word audio books, music CDs, fitness videos, board games, miniature editions, sewing patterns and foreign editions in over 25 countries). The company received over 155 quality awards recognizing editorial excellence. As Chairman and CEO, he and his team took the company public in 1998, acquired popular brands like Cliffs Notes, Frommer’s Travel Guides, Frommers.com, Webster’s New World Dictionary and sold it three years later to John Wiley and Sons in 2001.
He currently is founder/CEO of Brand Revolution LLC, a brand management and IP boutique consulting firm in the Bay area, whose clients include a Fortune 500 brokerage/banking company and digital/social media companies.
Kilcullen is also a popular lecturer on entrepreneurship and innovation at Babson College’s School for Executive Education and the Naval Postgraduate School, on brand strategy at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and on cross-media publishing at the Stanford Professional Publishing Course.
Kilcullen graduated magna cum laude with a BA, Communications, from Fordham College in 1981. He is a dual citizen of the US and Ireland.
YOUR BOOK IS YOUR HOOK! SUPPORTS…
Project Night Night and their efforts to put a new or slightly used children’s book in the hands of homeless children in shelters in the United States. Since 2005, they have hand-delivered more than 100,000 night night packages which include a stuffed animal, a blanket and a children’s book tucked inside a canvas night night bag.
We encourage you to find out how you can donate to support their efforts today.
Read to Feed is a reading incentive service-learning program that offers global education opportunities and will foster in your children a love for reading, a passion to help others and a way to help create a better world.
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