Joe D’Onofrio will replace Don Linn as director of Chicago Distribution Center. University of Chicago Press director Garrett Kiely notified the approximately 50 academic and scholarly presses that CDC serves on Thursday, and D'Onofrio will start on Monday, September 12. Linn, who was named director of the CDC in 2012, left the organization in May.
D’Onofrio, who from 2011 until March of this year was director of supply chain operations for North America at Henry Schein, a global distributor of health care products and veterinarian supplies, has deep ties to the publishing industry. He was employed in various capacities at Simon & Schuster for 25 years, beginning in 1986 as director of corporate cost and inventory accounting, and culminating as senior v-p of supply chain operations, a position he held for eight years, from 2003-2011.
During his long tenure at S&S, D’Onofrio also served as general manager for Pocket Books for two years, and general manager for S&S Children’s Publishing Division for almost six years. He left S&S in 2011 after a reorganization of the house's operations and finance group.
In his email to CDC client-publishers announcing D’Onofrio’s appointment, Kiely said that among his accomplishments at S&S "were the reconfiguration of their fulfillment centers and the development and implementation of a master plan to upgrade and modernize the warehouse systems and infrastructure that resulted in increased storage capacity, improved shipping throughput, and gains in labor productivity."
D’Onofrio has been a member of the Book Industry Study Group board of directors and served on a number of BISG core committees, including supply chain EDI and the distribution executive interest group. He also served as chair of the Association of American Publishers’ committee on standards and best practices for affidavit returns.
“He has a deep and pragmatic understanding of both the book supply chain and the best practices and operations of the global supply chain network,” Kiely added in his email. And, speaking to PW, Kiley added that D'Onofrio has "a great deal of experience in all aspects of publishing, distribution, and supply chain management."
D’Onofrio, a long-time resident of the New York City metro area, who holds a B.S. in accounting and marketing from Manhattan College, is relocating to Chicago this month.
