Donald R. Katz (born January 30, 1952[1]) is the founder [2] and longtime CEO of Audible, Inc. Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, Audible.com serves millions of listeners and offers over 800,000 downloadable audiobooks, Audible Originals (including Audible Theater and Audible Words + Music programming) and podcasts. Audible also commercialized the first portable digital audio player in 1997, four years before the introduction of the iPod. In 2004, Katz was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for New Jersey.[1] Audible was a publicly traded Nasdaq company until it was acquired and became a subsidiary of Amazon.com in early 2008.[3] Audible operates digital storefronts in the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Italy, Japan, Canada, India and Spain.
Named one of NJ.com's "25 Most Influential People in New Jersey" in 2016,[4] Katz has also been recognized as one of America's Top 25 Disruptive Leaders by Living Cities for his work on behalf of urban transformation in Newark.[5] Katz was the recipient of a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award in 2013.[citation needed] In 2022, Katz was named a PEN America Business Visionary Honoree[6] and was awarded the Innovator Tribute at the Gotham Awards.
Katz also founded Newark Venture Partners (NVP), a venture fund focused on creating a high-tech innovation hub in Newark.[7] The fund is housed in Audible's headquarters and provides capital, company-building services and residence to innovative tech startups. The fund's inaugural accelerator class launched September 2016.[8]
Katz served as Audible's CEO until January 2020, after which he held the title of founder and executive chairman until 2022.[9]
Biography
Katz was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 30, 1952.[1] He graduated from New York University in 1974, where he studied with Ralph Ellison, who had been made Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities.[10] Katz credits his idea to work in the field of audiobooks to studying under Ellison, with his emphasis on literature being something more than text and something that should be heard and performed, saying "I studied literature with Ralph as much as I read his work and talked about writing… Audible is testament, in many ways, to what I learned from him."[11] He also attended The University of Chicago as well as The London School of Economics, from which he holds an MSc in Economics.[1] He lives in Montclair, New Jersey, is married and has three children.[1]
Impact work
Katz’s work in Newark, New Jersey, spans decades. In 2007, Don moved Audible’s global headquarters from suburban New Jersey to downtown Newark, the largest city in the state, to be part of the city’s renaissance.[12] Today, Audible is the fastest-growing private employer in the city, with more than 1,900 employees in its Newark offices and hundreds more globally.[13]
“I consider the Newark move one of the best decisions we’ve made as a company,” Don has said.[14]
Under Katz’s leadership, Audible launched the Global Center for Urban Development in September 2020.[15] The center’s goal is to expand the company’s community and economic initiatives and launch new models focused on advancing equality, racial justice, and economic empowerment. The center brings together all equitable community aspirations at Audible under a single organization, from existing community projects in Newark to new efforts around urban innovation, to improve the lives of those in the cities and countries in which Audible operates.
One of Audible’s five People Principles, written by Katz, is “Activate Caring.” It says: “We work to improve the lives of those without privilege in the cities and countries in which we operate, because Audible seeks to exemplify what a company can mean beyond what it does.”[16]
In 2019, Audible opened its Innovation Cathedral, converting a historic, 80,000 square-foot church and community center into a workspace that houses hundreds of engineers, product managers, and other workers.[17]
Under Katz, Audible's programs have included:
Newark Working Kitchens: The Audible-led COVID-19 response has activated dozens of local restaurants to cook and serve meals for low-income seniors and families and people without homes. The program has served more than 1.5 million meals.[18]
Community hiring: Audible identifies, hires and trains Newark residents without traditional resumes[clarification needed] by partnering with community organizations.[19]
Paid internships: Newark high school students work side-by-side with Audible technologists, recruiters, data scientists, and sound engineers as paid interns. Once they go to college, they receive a monthly scholarship from Audible and return to work during breaks. All of Audible’s paid high school interns have been accepted to two- or four-year colleges.[20]
Live Local: Audible provides a $500 monthly subsidy to employees living in Newark to encourage active participation in the city’s life.[21]
Katz also served as a member of the public library board in Montclair, New Jersey[22] for nine years and on the board of Uncommon Schools,[23] a nonprofit organization that manages several urban college preparatory charter schools.
Newark is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 311,549. The Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 304,960 for 2023, making it the 66th-most populous municipality in the nation.
Essex County is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey, and is one of the centrally located counties in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the county was the state's second-most populous county, with a population of 863,728, its highest decennial count since the 1970 census and an increase of 79,759 (+10.2%) from the 2010 census count of 783,969. The county is part of the North Jersey region of the state.
Montclair is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a commercial and cultural hub of North Jersey and a diverse bedroom community of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. The township is the home of Montclair State University, the state's second-largest university.
The City of Orange is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 34,447, an increase of 4,313 (+14.3%) from the 2010 census count of 30,134, which in turn reflected a decline of 2,734 (+8.3%) from the 32,868 counted in the 2000 census.
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is a public research university in Newark, New Jersey, with a graduate-degree-granting satellite campus in Jersey City. Founded in 1881 with the support of local industrialists and inventors especially Edward Weston, NJIT opened as Newark Technical School (NTS) in 1885 with 88 students. As of fall 2022 the university enrolls 12,332 students from 92 countries, about 2,500 of whom live on its main campus in Newark's University Heights district.
Bloomfield College of Montclair State University is a public college in Bloomfield, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is chartered by the State of New Jersey and accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. The school became part of Montclair State University starting in July 2023, before which it had been a private college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) through the Synod of the Northeast.
Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Clifton and into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New Jersey. As of November 2021, there were 21,005 total enrolled students: 16,374 undergraduate students and 4,631 graduate students. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The campus covers approximately 252 acres (1.02 km2). The university offers more than 300 majors, minors, and concentrations.
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), in Downtown Newark in Newark, New Jersey, is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Home to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO), more than nine million visitors have visited the center since it opened in October 1997 on the site of the former Military Park Hotel.
Audible is an American online audiobook and podcast service that allows users to purchase and stream audiobooks and other forms of spoken word content. This content can be purchased individually or under a subscription model where the user receives "credits" that can be redeemed for content monthly and receive access to a curated on-demand library of content. Audible is the United States' largest audiobook producer and retailer. The service is owned by Audible, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation is an American philanthropic organization founded in Morristown, New Jersey which supports racial justice nonprofit organizations across New Jersey. The foundation believes that philanthropy includes not only providing resources, but also connecting leaders across sectors, sharing expertise, and promoting collaboration to help build movements for change in important matters. It funds New Jersey-focused working towards a just and equitable state. The foundation announced its decision to shift it headquarters to Newark in 2023 to better advance its mission.
The Montclair Public Schools are a comprehensive community public school district that serves students in kindergarten through twelfth grade from the Township of Montclair, in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The district consists of seven elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school.
Hahne & Company, commonly known as Hahne's, was a department store chain based in Newark, New Jersey. The chain had stores located throughout the central and northern areas of New Jersey.
University Hospital is an independent, state owned, teaching hospital in Newark, New Jersey that provides tertiary care to Northern New Jersey. The hospital is certified by the American College of Surgeons and is a state-designated Level 1 Trauma Center, one of only three in New Jersey.
Ajit "A. J." Khubani is an American inventor, entrepreneur and marketing executive. Known as the "Infomercial King," Khubani is the founder and CEO of the infomercial firm Telebrands and a pioneer of the infomercial industry. He is the creator of the original "As seen on TV" logo and category at retail.
One Washington Park is a high rise office building located on Harriet Tubman Square at 1 Washington Street in Newark, New Jersey. Among the tallest buildings in the city, it is best known as the home of Rutgers Business School, Amazon's Audible.com, and Newark Venture Partners.
Clement Alexander Price was an American historian. As the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of History at Rutgers University-Newark, Price brought his study of the past to bear on contemporary social issues in his adopted hometown of Newark, New Jersey, and across the nation. He was the founding director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers; the vice chair of President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; the chair of Obama's transition team for the National Endowment for the Humanities; a member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture; and a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He is the namesake of the jazz club Clement's Place.
Britnee N. Timberlake is an American Democratic Party elected official, community advocate, nonprofit executive, and humanitarian. She has represented the 34th Legislative District in the New Jersey Senate since January 2024, when she became New Jersey's youngest state senator. Before she took office in the senate, Timberlake had represented the 34th District in the New Jersey General Assembly from January 29, 2018, when she was sworn in to replace Sheila Oliver, who took office as Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey. Timberlake had served as Freeholder President of the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, where she was at the time the state's only African-American woman to serve as a freeholder board leader.
Newark Venture Partners (NVP) is a national seed stage venture capital firm backing bold founders building B2B software solving real-world business challenges. nvp takes a thematic approach to investing, focusing on areas where they've developed a point of view based on research, trend analysis, strong industry relationships and data. Current themes include fintech, industrial, and healthtech. nvp has offices in Newark, New Jersey and Manhattan
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