The Authors Alliance board of directors is pleased to announce the hiring of Michael Wolfe as its Executive Director. Michael will be occupying his new role at Authors Alliance effective today, September first.

Michael has been an involved volunteer with Authors Alliance since January, working on its projects and policy statements, and playing a pivotal role in readying the organization for launch. His background is in copyright and intellectual property scholarship, and he comes to the Alliance from his work as a Copyright Research Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, where he will continue his research on public interest authorship on a part-time basis. Michael has an undergraduate degree from Harvard, a law degree from Duke, and has completed postgraduate coursework at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

“Mike is both a visionary and a problem-solver,” said Authors Alliance co-founder Molly Van Houweling, “ready to roll up his sleeves to help authors address the practical problems that keep them from realizing their full potential to reach readers and preserve their intellectual legacies.”

As Executive Director, Michael will be responsible for managing Authors Alliance’s day-to-day operations, growing the organization into a leader on authors’ issues, developing a sustainable economic model for this growth, and working on the ground to demystify copyright and contracts so that authors can achieve their dissemination goals for their work. “I couldn’t be more excited to join Authors Alliance,” Michael said. “It’s a critical time for public interest authors and I firmly believe that the Alliance and its members can be the difference we need.”

“Michael Wolfe is an excellent choice as Executive Director. His love of books, and respect for their authors, is deep,” said Authors Alliance founding member James Boyle. “He’s worked on open access issues since his days as an undergraduate at Harvard. He has a passion for access to knowledge and a desire to do the difficult work of making that access easier. He is an immensely talented intellectual property lawyer. And he is a pragmatist; someone who is fair and open and honest. I support the Authors Alliance because I am an author and my interests and concerns were not always being represented by those who purported to speak for all authors. Michael is an excellent choice to add my voice—our voice—to the national conversation.”