Candidate Statement - Simon Peter

Dear Readium Foundation Members,

Please accept my candidacy for the Readium Board of Directors.

As the Head of Product Management ePublishing at Deutsche Telekom, I am responsible for the development of tolino eReading clients that are used by millions of customers every day. The tolino platform is a joint initiative of Deutsche Telekom and leading European booksellers, which spans devices, reading apps, and cloud services. From its inception, we have designed the tolino platform as an open system based on industry standards. Within 18 months, the tolino partnership has introduced 6 award-winning reading devices, has established presence in well over 1,000 points of sale, has achieved market leadership (44% market share; source: GfK) in Germany, and has successfully expanded into five more European countries.

Readium is an important pillar of our open platform strategy. The project shares many of the values we uphold in the tolino partnership: We strongly believe in the vision of books as cultural assets rather than simple consumer goods and stand against those trying to establish a monopoly via proprietary standards and closed-system vendor lock-in. Instead, we aim to enable diverse, local players to participate in a vibrant, competitive marketplace. This requires open standards and open implementations that can be easily adopted by everybody.

Before assuming my current role, I led consulting teams at McKinsey & Company, helping clients in the retail and telecommunications sectors optimize their business strategies in response to increasing digitization. As a result, I have deep insights into the digital content, retail, and adjacent industries from numerous perspectives, e.g., device manufacturers, publishers, large and small book retailers, telecommunication operators, and software developers. I hold a doctorate degree in Business Economics from Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, and a Master’s Degree (MBA equivalent) from Purdue University, USA. In my free time, I contribute to Open Source projects and am a passionate reader.

Based on my strategic business background, technical expertise in developing reading systems, and natural links to the German and European publishing industry, I am confident that I can help steer Readium in a direction to further develop it as a solid, reliable framework that will enable a wealth of exciting digital reading experiences for years to come.

Please support me with your vote.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Simon Peter