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| Mark Wilson | |
Mark Wilson, who has worked at Joseph-Beth Booksellers for 12 years, first as chief operating officer, then as president and CEO since 2011, has lost his job, the Herald-Leader reported, adding that on Friday, he confirmed the news and said, "Until I sort through a few things I would prefer not to make any comment."
Joseph-Beth has been owned the past seven years by Robert Langley, whose company Langley Properties, owns the flagship store's building in Lexington, Ky. Langley purchased that Joseph-Beth store and two others after the company went bankrupt in 2010.
Joseph-Beth was founded in 1986 by Neil Van Uum and Mary Beth Van Uum and expanded to nine stores, including the Davis-Kidd Booksellers chain, before breaking up in the wake of the financial crisis. Neil Van Uum was able to keep control of the company's Memphis store, which became the Booksellers at Laurelwood. That store closed last year, and a local group opened a new store, Novel, in the same shopping center. Van Uum owns the Booksellers on Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Joseph-Beth current has three superstores--in Lexington, Ky., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Crestview Hills, Ky.--and three hospital shops, at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, the Jewish Hospital and the Christ Hospital, both in Cincinnati.