Alberto Vitale

Chairman Emeritus, Random House, Inc., New York, New York

BIO:
Alberto Vitale was recently the chairman of the supervisory board of Random House, Inc., which oversaw key strategic opportunities and directions for the publisher worldwide. Random House, a division of Bertelsmann AG, is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. Previously, Mr. Vitale was chairman and chief executive officer of Random House, Inc. from 1989 to 1998. Born in Italy in 1933 and educated in Europe, he received his doctorate in economics from the University of Turin. He came to the United States in 1957 as a Fulbright Scholar to attend the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1975, Vitale entered the publishing world when he joined Bantam books as vice president of administration. When Bertelsmann acquired Bantam in 1977, Mr. Vitale became executive vice president and chief operating officer, as well as president of Bertelsmann Publishing Group, Inc. In June 1985, he was named CEO of Bantam and by January 1987, he had become president and CEO of the newly formed Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Mr. Vitale joined Random House as chairman, president and CEO in November 1989. He was named chairman of Random House's supervisory board in July 1998 when the company was acquired by Bertelsmann, bringing together Random House and Bantam Doubleday Dell into one company known as Random House, Inc. Mr. Vitale is also a current member of the Board of the Association of American Publishers; co-chairman of the Publishers Committee at the New York Public Library; and a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania Library. In addition to being honored for his work by Brandeis Universiy, the Anti-Defamation League, and the French government, he was the first recipient of the Fulbright Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. Mr. Vitale is a member of the Century Club, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York.