APAC 2023

8:45am - 9:15am: Vocal and Physical Warm Up

Led by:
Chris Ciulla - (Narrator & Physical/Wellness Coach)
An award-winning narrator with over 440 credits, Chris has garnered six Earphones Awards, a SOVAS win, six Audie nominations, and both an Odyssey and an Audie win for muti-cast titles. Also, Chris has launched Leonardo Audio, his homegrown publishing and production company. Chris is also a Video Game and motion capture actor, with physical experience in stunts and 20+ years of wellness coaching and athletic training.

Rachel Fulginiti - (Narrator & Yoga Nidra Instructor)
An award-winning narrator, Rachel is a two-time Audie Finalist, Earphones and Voice Arts Award recipient with a passion for health and wellness. A veteran of the stage, she holds a degree in acting from The University of New Hampshire and is a graduate of the Two-year Meisner Conservatory at The School for Film and Television in Manhattan. Rachel is the creator / host of the forthcoming “From Foster to Forever” podcast, as well as a singer and a yoga nidra instructor.

9:30am - 10:30am: Being A Disruptor in Disrupting Times, by Lindsey T.H. Jackson

Speaker:
Lindsey T.H. Jackson - (Disrupter, Researcher & CEO)
Lindsey is the Cofounder & Lead Executive Officer at LTHJ Global — bringing healing and innovation at work and beyond through leading-edge Diversity, Equity & Inclusion methodologies. In this keynote address, Lindsey takes us on a walk down memory lane, to help us understand why everything we are experiencing right now is "right on time." You are not the one who's burnt out, checked out, and trying to figure out what to do with their Twitter account. However, you and your voice are needed in these times of uncertainty. Harness that power and speak up.

MORNING SESSIONS: PRODUCTION

10:45am - 12:15pm: Meet the Producers

10:45am - 11:15am: IRL Networking How-To

Moderated by:
Vikas Adam - (Narrator)
In addition to the over 475 genre hopping audiobooks he’s recorded, Vikas Adam is an actor, director, and faculty at the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television.  His audiobook catalog includes prominent works from diverse authors including Salman Rushdie, Paulo Coelho, Yann Martel, and Grant Morrison.  Other voiceover credits include recordings for Audm/NYT and Apple News, animation, dubbing, and podcasts. Vikas has won the Audie Award (and is a multiple nominee), a Voice-Arts Award, 19 Earphones awards, is on several “Best of the Year” lists and is an inaugural inductee into the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame.  Socials: @vikasadam

Speakers:
Jennifer Aquino - (Actor & Narrator)
Jennifer Aquino is an actor and award-winning narrator based in Los Angeles with 20+ years working in film, television, theatre, and voiceover. Fun Fact: she's one of the doctors who killed McDreamy on ABC’s "Grey's Anatomy." Jennifer started narrating audiobooks in 2021 and has gratefully narrated titles for Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Audible Studios, Blackstone, Dreamscape Media, Podium, and Tantor. She also directs audiobooks, directing with Hachette and Macmillan. Jennifer also has a business background, having graduated from UCLA with a BA in Economics and brings 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, networking, and leadership training.

Ruthie Bowles - (Narrator)
Ruthie is an Army Veteran and former translator from Southern California who now calls Central Maryland her home. If she's not in her soundbooth or writing at her computer, you can find her hiking in the trails near her house, playing with her kids, or (of course), reading a book. While book reading is her top hobby, she also gardens and homesteads. Connecting to the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) book community on TikTok is what has allowed her to narrate and consult for authors full-time in less than a year.

Jonathan Beville - (Audiobook Narrator & Producer, Studio-B)
Jonathan Beville is an audiobook narrator and owner of Studio-B, a boutique audiobook production studio working Independent authors. As an audiobook narrator he has narrated books for Penguin Random House, Hachette, Audible Studios, and others. As the owner of Studio-B and an audiobook producer he has cast and produced nearly 20 audiobooks by independent authors in a variety of categories including self-help, memoirs, romance, and non-fiction.

Erick Black - (Production Manager, Dreamscape Media)
After graduating from Full Sail University, Erick Black worked several gigs including live sound reinforcement, operations at an independent TV Station, and as an audio engineer for a company that manufactures brass bells. Finally, his love of audio and passion for the written word led him to Dreamscape Media where he started recording and directing audiobooks. He has been casting and producing there since 2017 and absolutely loves the work and the audiobook community. An outdoor enthusiast, Erick lives deep in the woods with his wife, two daughters, a cat, a dog, and 2 bunnies.

11:30am - 12:15pm: Maintaining Your Mental Health

Moderated by:
Leon Nixon - (Award-winning Narrator)
Leon is an award winning audiobook narrator, a director, filmmaker and playwright.  A former police captain, retired after 30 years of public service, Leon has a Juris Doctor and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business.  He has been an audiobook narrator since 2016, and has narrated over 200 audiobooks. He's an improvisor, trained in Los Angeles and Chicago, and is part of the group that is in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest continuous improv show at 150 hours.

Speakers:
Andy Garcia-Ruse - (Audiobook Narrator)
Andy is a SAG-AFTRA Audiobook Narrator based in Kansas City who lives with a Traumatic Brain Injury, Epilepsy, ADHD, and other chronic health conditions. Prior to the accident leading to Andy’s disability, she is a mental health therapist, graduate-level professor, and speaker for dozens of conferences and workshops nationwide (including work on the topics of self-care and burnout prevention). Andy is passionate about educating and inspiring others both in and out of the audiobook industry.

Hillary Huber - (Narrator)
Multiple Audie Finalist, Earphone Awards and SOVAS winner, Hillary Huber has narrated almost 700 audiobooks spanning a variety of genres. She particularly enjoys thrillers and historical fiction. She has a BA in English Literature and is a voracious reader and listener of audiobooks. Raised in conservative Connecticut and hippy Hawaii, Hillary now splits her time between Santa Monica and NY. Most of that time is spent in a small 4x4 time travel capsule.

Helen Lloyd - (Audiobook Narrator & Narrator Coach)
In a career spanning more than fifty years, in the competitive worlds of acting and television production, I have learned a lot about the importance of being well grounded and realistic about the world we all work in. When I first began working in audiobooks, I recorded one book in a studio, and since then, all but four of the 150 books I've narrated, have been recorded solo in my personal studio, so I am well used to working alone. I live in Derbyshire, a long way from the hustle and bustle of London studios, and in an area where there are few other performers. I have lived alone since the death of my husband, so am increasingly aware of the impact that working in isolation can have on mental health, how hard it is to stay motivated, now to keep a healthy life/work balance and how not to allow imposter syndrome and rabbit holes of endless retakes. I work hard to mitigate the damaging effects of isolation an a busy schedule - and feel I have a lot to offer to this presentation.

Melissa Moran - (Audiobook Narrator, Double M Audio LLC)
Melissa Moran is an award winning Narrator with over 300 books, on camera/stage actress, and a Certified Life Coach helping voice over talent feel empowered both inside and outside the booth. She lives with her 10 year old son and husband in Central Florida.

Soneela Nankani - (Narrator)
Soneela is an award-winning narrator with over 350 titles in many different genres including Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi and Nonfiction. She has garnered 20 Earphone awards, multiple Audie and SOVAS nominations and has been awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. Her audiobooks have been featured in Best Audiobooks lists by AudioFile Magazine, The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is also an audiobook director and coach, a frazzled mom of 2 and an avid tennis fan.

Ann Richardson - (Narrator - Her Smooth Voice LLC, Publisher - Great Plains Audiobooks & Narrator/Launching Coach)
Narrating since 2008 for independent authors as well as publishers including Audible, Blackstone, Brilliance, Oasis, Penguin Random House, Tantor and more, Ann has garnered praise for her work, including several Earphones awards and SOVAS nominations. In addition to the love of storytelling itself, Ann also coaches new narrators for VoiceOne academy in San Francisco, and created a downloadable narrator launching program residing on Narrator.Life. During the pandemic she formed an audiobook publishing company called Great Plains Audiobooks, and now enjoys the new perspective this has brought. Originally from Nebraska, Ann now lives in the San Francisco bay area with her husband and two giant mastiffs. For fun she likes long-distance running and traveling to Sweden to visit family there.

MORNING SESSIONS: BUSINESS

10:30am - 11:00am: Break

11:00am - 12:15pm: Disruption in the Market

Moderated by:
Adam Fritz - (CEO, Pozotron)
Adam is the CEO of Pozotron, a company dedicated to building state-of-the-art technology to change the way scripted audio is produced. Adam has a BA from McGill University and an MBA from San Diego State University, and prior to Pozotron had executive and leadership roles with multiple companies in the software and professional sport industries. Adam lives in Vancouver, BC with his two sons, Ethan and Connor.

Speakers:
Paul Abbassi - (Founder, Bookstat LLC)
Paul Abbassi is the Founder of Bookstat, a supplier of daily, title-level online sales data to large publishers, providing whole-market point-of-sale coverage of ebooks, audiobooks, and online print. Previously, Paul was a tech executive in the videogame industry, leading real-time data analytics and online market tracking for large mobile game publishers. Prior to launching Bookstat, Paul was the anonymous co-author of the “Author Earnings” reports: the first book-industry analyses to quantify the hidden volume and economic impact of unreported ebook sales.

Kurt Thielen - (CEO, Zebralution)
Kurt Thielen is the founder and Managing Director of Zebralution, one of the biggest Digital Distributors for music and audiobooks in the World.
Thielen started his career working in a record shop in 1979 and was the Head of Rough Trade Records and later Zomba Records in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for more than 20 years, working with a wide range of acts from New Order and The Smiths to Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. After the company had been sold he founded Zebralution as the first real digital distribution company in Germany with a Worldwide focus. In 2007 the Warner Music Group acquired Zebralution. Since 2010 digital audiobook and especially streaming has become an important factor in Zebralution’s portfolio. In April 2017 Thielen bought Zebralution back from Warners together with experienced industry executives.
Zebralution works with all big and many smaller audiobook publishers in Germany but the focus is becoming increasingly international. In October 2018 IG Hoerbuch, the body of the German audiobook publishers, awarded him as ‘Audiobook Person of the Year 2018’. Thielen was a member of the Board of the German IFPI from 1998 to 2003 and from 2005 to 2007.

Nir Zicherman - (Vice President, Global Head of Audiobooks and Gated Content - Spotify)
Nir Zicherman is the Vice President and Global Head of Audiobooks at Spotify. Prior to joining Spotify, he co-founded Anchor, which today powers more than 75% of all the world's podcasts.

Bradley Metrock - (CEO, Project Voice)
Bradley Metrock is CEO of Project Voice and General Partner of Project Voice Capital Partners.

AFTERNOON SESSIONS 1

1:45pm - 2:30pm: TikTok Made Me Buy It! The Social Media Playbook for 2023
Joint session for Business & Production tracks

Moderated by:
Victoria Gerken - (Publisher - Podium Audio)
Victoria Gerken is the Publisher at Podium and a Board Member of the APA. She has welcomed independent authors into the Podium family since 2016. She previously worked with authors in traditional publishing roles - at Random House and Alfred A. Knopf - where she was a publicist and sold subsidiary rights. She got her first taste of entrepreneurship in publishing as the founder of the Random House Speakers Bureau.

Speakers:
Ron (Ronnie) Butler - (Narrator)
Actor, narrator, and media producer Ron (Ronnie) Butler has over a hundred stage, TV, and film credits, and several hundred audiobook titles. He is a multiple Earphones Award winning narrator, and SOVA and Audie Award nominee, and his titles have made annual “Best Of” lists across multiple genres. He has taught acting at the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, AMDA, Pace University, and is on the coaching staff at Narrator.Life.

Reba Buhr - (Narrator)
Reba Buhr is a critically acclaimed actress, host, and audiobook narrator with over 200 titles on Audible. She is a 2020 Audiofile Earphones Award winner for her narration of Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles, and a 2021 SOVAS nominee for Best Audiobook Narration-Teens for Cinnamon Bun by Ravensdagger. Reba graduated from Occidental College with a BA in Theater and Vocal Performance and now lives and works in Los Angeles. Her voice can be heard in many video games and animated series, and she is an active mental health advocate. www.rebabuhr.com

Michael D'Angelo - (Marketing Manager, HarperCollins Publishers)
Michael D'Angelo is a long time book enthusiast and marketing manager at HarperCollins Publishers working in young adult literature, having worked on books such as Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin, Gallant by V. E. Schwab, and The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera. He prefers fantasy books, or books that break him, emotionally.

Gary Furlong - (Voice Actor, Gary Furlong Voiceovers)
Gary has over 270 books on Audible.com and is the recipient of an Audie, a SOVAS and 4 X Audiofile Earphones awards. He recently became part of the Star Wars Extended Universe with his narration of “Star Wars: Padawan” by Kiersten White for Disney Lucasfilm Press. Gary works out of his broadcast quality home studio in Denton, Texas. When not working, he enjoys playing guitar, Karaoke, painting Bob Ross style landscapes, cleaning up paint, and cooking!

Stella Hunter - (Narrator)
Stella Hunter has narrated over 200 titles, primarily in the romance genre. In addition to narration work, she produces with Audibly Addicted and writes under the name Kim Loraine. She is a classically trained performer with a deep respect for the stories she is honored to bring to life using her voice.

Emily Lyman - (CEO, Branch & Bramble)
Emily Lyman has worked with top global companies for more than a decade to help them achieve tangible marketing results. As CEO & Founder of Branch & Bramble, she’s built a digital marketing agency focused on helping lifestyle brands craft new messaging and positioning rooted in values-based marketing that attracts life-long audiences.

Branch & Bramble has been named as one of the “Top US Digital Marketing & Digital Agencies” on Yahoo! Finance, as well as one of the “Top Digital Marketing Agencies in New York.” Lyman has been featured on Digiday, CO- by U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Authority Magazine. https://www.branchandbramble.com/

1:45pm - 2:30pm: The Future of Production: Home Narration and Studio Production
Joint session for Business & Production tracks

Moderated by:
Cassandra Medcalf - (Narrator/Engineer/Author)
Cassandra Medcalf is an audio engineer, narrator, and author. In addition to her work in publishing, she also produces music and edits dialogue for film, podcasts, and online media. She has a passion for storytelling and loves bringing characters to life. She lives and works in a lovely homestead in upstate New York with her incredible husband and their even more incredible dog, and someday hopes to plant ALL the fruit trees.

Speakers:
Sophie Amoss - (Narrator)
Sophie Amoss is an Audie, Earphones, and SOVAS Award-winning audiobook narrator. She won the 2022 Audie for Best Non-Fiction for her narration of “The Joy of Sweat” by Sarah Everts (Random House Audio). This year, she is an Audie Finalist for “The Prophet’s Wife” by Libbie Grant (HarperAudio), as well as “The Butcher and the Wren” by Alaina Urquhart, which she co-narrated with Joe Knezevich (Zando). She has narrated 200+ audiobooks for such authors as James Patterson, Chuck Palahniuk, Andy Weir, Judy Blume, Peter Swanson, Alafair Burke, and many more. Sophie received her MFA in Acting from Columbia University.

Chris Mottes - (CEO & Partner, Hindenburg Systems)
Chris has 30+ years of experience in media production, entrepreneurship, management and business development in London, Stockholm and Copenhagen. For the last 14 years with Hindenburg, Chris has been supporting independent VO narrators as well as talking book libraries for the blind and audiobook publishing houses.

Chris’s first audio experience was on student radio at University of KwaZulu-Natal in the 1980’s - he goofed around to look cool. He has worked as a producer, sound technician and editor on countless radio, TV, film and games productions since 1990.

Before joining the Hindenburg in 2010 as CEO, Chris co-founded and managed several media production companies including Deadline Film and TV, Deadline Games and Vision Park Entertainment.

Troy Otte - (Vice President, Production, Podium Audio)
Troy Otte is an audio engineer with 20 years of experience in music and post-production. Having spent the last 12 years working in the Audiobook industry he is the V.P. of Production Operations for Podium Audio and President of Featured Audio.

André Santana - (Voice Actor & Audiobook Narrator)
André Santana is a NYC-based audiobook narrator on a journey to tell great stories. He's a Black, Latine, and non-binary voice actor drawing from his background in spoken word poetry, improv, and public speaking to bring fresh perspectives and human performances to his books. From his home studio and across Manhattan, he has the pleasure of narrating for publishers like Harper Collins and Penguin Random House, as well as indie authors and small presses. Outside of the booth, André is an avid writer, Polaroid photography enthusiast, and a prolific Google Maps reviewer.

AFTERNOON SESSIONS 2

2:45pm - 3:30pm: Choosing the Right Royalty Share Project — Beginner’s Session
Production track session

Moderated by:
Krystal Hammond - (Narrator)
Krystal Hammond is a narrator/writer, cancer survivor, and nonbinary queer human. They grew up in rural North Carolina, nurtured by a steady diet of local Black Beard legends and Civil War era ghost stories. These nuggets of folktale and myth fostered a life-long love of storytelling and all the drama that goes with it, resulting in loads of trunk novels and dozens of audiobooks. They have a special knack for YA, a passion for horror and SFF, and a love for laughter.

Speakers:
James Patrick Cronin - (Narrator)
JPC is an award-winning narrator of over 1,000 audiobooks. This year marks his 10th in the industry and he has adored every second of it. He counts himself extremely lucky to work alongside so many talented and passionate storytellers and creators.

Amy Deuchler - (Audiobook Narrator)
Amy Deuchler is a native of the Chicago area. She spent her childhood reading and performing in plays, so narrating audiobooks is the dream job for this librarian-theatre nerd. Her narration has won SOVAS Voice Arts and AudioFile Earphone awards and has been a finalist in the Independent Audiobook Awards. Listeners describe Amy's voice as warm, intuitive and clever - "very smooth" with "a delightful tone.”

When not narrating, Amy can be found sipping tea, designing lights and scenery for theatre, creating handmade crafts, and biking. She also loves to spend time exploring the Milwaukee/Chicago area with her boyfriend and doting on their four cats.

Meghan Kelly - (Narrator)
Meghan has a background in Theatre, Music, and worked as a Talent Agent & Casting Director in both NYC and Michigan. She then transitioned to Voice Over work and on to Narrating Audiobooks. Meghan is now a multi-nominated and award winning narrator who works with many Publishing Houses and several prolific Authors. She's coming up on 10 years narrating and close to 500 titles. She enjoys sharing and helping newer narrators being an Ambassador and also Mentoring for APA and has recently started privately Mentoring new narrators.

2:45pm - 3:30pm: The Inside Scoop: Casting Director Perspectives on Casting and Multicast Productions
Production track session

Moderated by:
Erin Bennett - (Narrator)
“...a truly superb, sensitive performance by Erin Bennett… you will wish it went on forever.” - The Washington Post. Bennett is a Los Angeles-based actress whose passion for storytelling makes her a natural fit for audiobooks. Winner of multiple Earphones and Audie nominated, she narrated one of AudioFile’s “Best Audiobooks of 2016,” and has recorded over 450 titles. Her genres vary widely, and has been named by Audible, a "pied piper narrator. If she narrates, I listen!" She recently sang for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden in Washington, D.C. with her Andrews Sisters trio, The Harmony Dolls.

Speakers:
Matie Argiropoulos - (Director of PreProduction, Executive Producer - Penguin Random House Audio)
Matie has been working in audiobooks for 13 years. She won the 2019 Odyssey Award for Sadie by Courtney Summers and a 2022 Audie Award for Ashley C. Ford's Somebody's Daughter. Matie is a three time Grammy® nominee and has a passion for urban cycling. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife and their perfect cat.

Stephanie Cicatiello - (Vice President, Casting, Podium Audio)
Stephanie Cicatiello, the Vice President of Casting at Podium Audio, is an Audie Award-Winning audio engineer and Audie Award-Nominated audiobook producer with over a decade of experience creating dynamic audiobook productions for high-profile authors. She is passionate about bringing each author's creative vision and voice to life through narration. In her role as VP, Stephanie leads the casting team, directs special projects, and scouts and evaluates voice over talent. With a background working for both major and independent publishers, she has cultivated positive relationships with voice over talent and agents to develop speciality single- and multi-talent casts for unique audiobook productions. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys exploring her new home of Los Angeles, CA and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

Rinn Kraus - (Producer, Spotify)
Rinn is a long time audiobook fan, who has been lucky enough to be producing and casting for six years at Findaway and now Spotify. They are passionate about the titles they produce as well as elevating and empowering the performers they get the opportunity to work with. Still an avid listener in their spare time, Rinn is also known for making the occasional doodle and having a fondness of sheep.

Brian Ramcharan - (Producer, Penguin Random House Audio)
Brian is a Producer at Penguin Random House Audio. Brian has been an audio professional for over 10 years, with roots in the music industry as a recording engineer in New York and Los Angeles. After developing an affinity for spoken word, Brian transitioned to audiobooks and worked as an audio editor, and then moved on to become a well-known fixture at CDM Studios, where he recorded and directed audiobooks, podcasts, and TV and film projects. His audio productions have been recognized with Earphones awards, Apple Must Listens, and Audible Editors Select picks (as producer). Most notably, he received a GRAMMY® nomination for his work as a recording engineer on PRH Audio's production of Beastie Boys Book by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz, and he was the Managing Producer at Simon & Schuster for the 2020 Audie Award Audiobook of the Year winner The Only Plane In The Sky by Garrett M. Graff.

2:45pm - 4:00pm: The Business of Being Creative
Business track session

Moderated by:
Danielle D'Orlando - (Curator of Audio, Princeton University Press)
Danielle D’Orlando is the Curator of Audio at Princeton University Press, home to the first in-house university press audiobook division: Princeton Audio. She spent much of her career at Yale University Press where she spearheaded their audio program, including the development of Yale Press Audio.

Speakers:
Duane Beeman - (Director of Production, Graphic Audio)
Duane Beeman is Director of Production and an integral Senior Manager at Graphic Audio LLC, a division of RBmedia. He has worked in the audiobook industry for over twenty-three years. Duane manages a production team of over thirty Creative Directors and Sound Designers as well as multiple full-cast audio productions with music and sound effects monthly. Duane works with Graphic Audio’s senior management for content selection, manages the coordination of author/publisher creative launch meetings and ensures productions are completed with the best quality meeting publication dates. Duane graduated from Pensacola Christian College in Florida with a BA in Broadcast Communications.

Carla Herbertson - (Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer, Small Wardour)
Carla has been working in the children’s audio industry for over 20 years, of which 10 as BBC producer. As Head of International Audio Content she looked after the international acquisition strategy for digital distributor Zebralution. Carla co-founded children’s audio consultancy and production company Small Wardour in 2022.
Small Wardour offers bespoke children’s audiobook and podcast strategy consulting for businesses, brands and platforms looking to develop, grow, launch, promote or monetise their children’s audio content. They also produce content and are creators of the award-winning podcast Super Great Kids’ Stories.

Nicole Morano - (Senior Director of Communications, Pushkin Industries)
Nicole is the Senior Director of Communications at Pushkin Industries, the audio company co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg. Prior to that, she worked at Penguin Random House in various publicity departments for ten years, most recently at Penguin Random House Audio.

Dan Zitt - (Senior Vice President, Content Production, Penguin Random House)
Dan Zitt, SVP, Content Production for Penguin Random House Audio has been the creative catalyst for over two thousand audiobook productions, collaborating with bestselling authors, notable celebrities, branded properties, and award-winning narrators. Eighteen of his recordings have been nominated for Grammy Awards™, with three winning the award for Best Spoken Word Album. Currently Dan oversees the production of over twenty five hundred audiobooks a year with his bi-coastal production team. He is also the creator of www.Ahabtalent.com, a casting website dedicated to the discovery of worldwide voice talent for the audiobook industry.

2:45pm - 4:00pm: Business Meetings
Business track session

AFTERNOON SESSIONS 3

4:00pm - 5:15pm: Meet the Press
Business track session

Moderated by:
Laura Gachko - (Vice President - Content, RBmedia)
Laura Gachko is currently Vice President of Content at RBmedia, the largest independent audiobook publisher in the world with a catalogue of 65,000 audiobooks. She also serves as Secretary for the Audio Publishers Association and acts as the Business Track Co-Chair for the APA’s annual conference. She spent a little more than two years at Audible, acquiring content for Audible Studios and Audible’s Originals program, before moving to Recorded Books in February 2019. As VP of Content at RBmedia, Laura oversees the annual acquisition activity of more than 2,000 audiobooks for the Recorded Books, HighBridge, BookaVivo, Ascent, and McGraw Hill-Ascent imprints.

Speakers:
Tom Beer - (Editor-in-Chief, Kirkus Reviews)
Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief of Kirkus Reviews. He is a past president of the National Book Critics Circle, the former books editor of Newsday, and a former editor-in-chief of Out Magazine.

Emily Cox - (Senior Director, Editorial - Audible, Inc.)
Emily Cox is a long-time Audible leader, currently serving as Senior Director, Editorial. In this role, she and her team build buzz around titles and help customers find their next great listen, driving content discovery through thoughtful curation, a suite of newsletters tailored to specific interests, interviews with authors and narrators, lists and collections that respond to search demand and trends, and more. Emily and team are committed to elevating underrepresented voices and helping listeners go deep on the content and fandoms they love. She graduated from UVA and lives in Maplewood, NJ, with her family.

Robin Whitten - (Editor & Founder, AudioFile Magazine)
Robin Whitten is the founder and editor of AudioFile Magazine. AudioFile reviews and recommends audiobooks and celebrates 30 years of this single-focused endeavor. We maintain a multi-platform resource—publishing recommendations in print, newsletters, and at AudioFileMagazine.com. AudioFile also has two podcasts—Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine, a short daily conversation about one audiobook and Audiobook Break, a chapter-a-day audiobook.

Robin has served on the board of Directors of the Audio Publishers Association, and as an Audie Awards judge. Getting a field-education starting a magazine, Robin also attended Stanford's Publishing Program and is a graduate of Vassar College. She listens to audiobooks while gardening and walking and lives in Portland, Maine, where AudioFile is based.

4:00pm - 5:15pm: The Professional Ear
Production track session

Moderated by:
Matthew Lloyd Davies - (Narrator)
Matthew Lloyd Davies is an AUDIE, SOVAS and multiple Earphones winning narrator of nearly 400 audiobooks, also appearing in the Best Of The Year list (AudioFile Magazine) this year for his recording of the thriller: A Spy’s Life by Henry Porter. An actor (Nominated Best Actor in a Musical (Man in Chair; The Drowsy Chaperone: OFFIES) and director (Argus Angel Award (BASH by Neil Labute for his own theatre company ‘Lunatics and the Poor’), Masters Degree trained at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School UK) for nearly 40 years including: RSC, National Theatre, West End Musicals Regional Rep, Domestic and International touring and Award winning tv and film (Including the Oscar winning The Madness of King George and the BAFTA award winning A Rather English Marriage). Matthew is also an Audiobook Narration coach and creator of: 21 Targets; The 21 Day Audiobook Narrators Challenge.

Speakers:
Lisa Cahn - (Producer, Hachette Audio)
After an early career in journalism, Lisa stumbled into audiobook publishing during its early “books-on-tape” days in the mid-90s as an executive producer for Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing. In 2016 Lisa joined Hachette Audio as remote producer. She works from her Hudson Valley, NY recording studio/boutique production house, Prose Garden Productions, about 60 miles north of Manhattan, producing numerous titles worldwide.

Nick Martorelli - (Executive Producer, Penguin Random House Audio)
Nick Martorelli is an executive producer with Penguin Random House Audio, working on a wide variety of titles. He produces the Star Wars audiobooks, including the recent full-cast productions Tempest Runner and Doctor Aphra. He has a love of full-cast audio dramas, and has produced the audio adaptations of multiple graphic novels, including the Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka, the Hilo series by Judd Winick, and the Max and the Midknights series by Lincoln Peirce. Before joining PRH, Nick was a professional actor, and he’s always willing to talk at length about Sherlock Holmes, Superman, and Star Trek.

Soneela Nankani - (Narrator)
Soneela is an award-winning narrator with over 350 titles in many different genres including Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi and Nonfiction. She has garnered 20 Earphone awards, multiple Audie and SOVAS nominations and has been awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. Her audiobooks have been featured in Best Audiobooks lists by AudioFile Magazine, The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is also an audiobook director and coach, a frazzled mom of 2 and an avid tennis fan.