Meet The Executives
Meet The Morgan James Executives
David L. Hancock, Founder
David Hancock is recognized by NASDAQ as one of the world’s most prestigious business leaders. He was also named a Finalist in the Best Chairman category in The 2006 American Business Awards. Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” by the New York Post, The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing business awards program honoring great performances in the workplace.
David was selected for Fast Company Magazine’s Fast 50 for 2006 for his leadership, creative thinking, significant accomplishments and his significant impact on the industry over the next ten years. David has revolutionized book publishing from the author’s standpoint. His Entrepreneurial Publishing™ model enriches authors as well as the company.
Actively working with his authors to help them not only maximize revenue from their book royalties, but also build new business and increase their revenue substantially through follow-on sales to their readers.
One of David’s core values is having strong and mutually beneficial relationships. “We’ve spent years developing many of the key business relationships that allows us to get our books in bookstores and the widespread Web coverage we’ve been able to achieve. We intend to stay constant in our pursuit of positive relationships with people in all facets of our business, and we see that as a strategic advantage.”
David is the Founder of The Entrepreneurial Author University and Founder of The Ethan Awards, the only international, all-encompassing entrepreneurial author awards for business authors. David sites on the advisory board of The Mark Victor Hansen Foundation and on the Executive Board of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula. David has also authored too many books to list them all here but they include The Entrepreneurial Author, Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, Guerrilla Marketing for Mortgage Brokers, and The Secrets of Master Marketing.
David and his wife Susan live in Hampton Roads, Virginia with their two children, Morgan Renee and Ethan James.
Rick Frishman, Publisher
RICK FRISHMAN, the founder of Planned Television Arts, has been one of the leading book publicists in America for over 30 years. Working with many of the top book editors, literary agents and publishers in America, including Simon and Schuster, Random House, Wiley, Harper Collins, Pocket Books, Penguin Putnam, Morgan James and Hyperion Books, he has worked with best-selling authors including Mitch Albom, Bill Moyers, Stephen King, Caroline Kennedy, Howard Stern, President Jimmy Carter, Mark Victor Hansen, Nelson DeMille, John Grisham, Hugh Downs, Henry Kissinger, Jack Canfield, Alan Deshowitz, Arnold Palmer, David Hancock and Harvey Mackay.
Rick is Publisher at Morgan James Publishing in New York. David Hancock founded Morgan James in 2003 and in 2008 Morgan James published over 150 books. Morgan James only publishes non fiction books and looks for authors with a platform who believe in giving back. Morgan James gives a portion of every book sold to Habitat for Humanity.
Rick has also appeared on hundreds of radio shows and more than a dozen TV shows nationwide including OPRAH and Bloomberg TV. He has also been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Selling Power Magazine, New York Post and scores of publications.
He is the co-author of ten books, including national best-sellers GUERRILLA PUBLICITY and NETWORKING MAGIC. Along with media personality Robyn Freedman Spizman, Rick also co-wrote the popular four-book series AUTHOR 101 and recently they teamed up for their highly acclaimed book entitled WHERE’S YOUR WOW? 16 Ways To Make Your Competitors Wish They Were You! (McGraw Hill, March, 2008).
Rick’s 10th book Guerrilla Publicity 2nd edition was published in October 2008. (Adams Media)
He is the co-host (with attorney Richard Solomon) of the radio show Taking Care of Business, which airs every Thursday from 2:00-3:00 pm on WCWP-Radio in Long Island, New York. (www.tcbradio.com) Rick has a B.F.A. in acting and directing and a B.S. from Ithaca College School of Communications and is a sought after lecturer on publishing and public relations and a member of PRSA and the National Speakers Association.
Rick and his wife Robbi live in Long Island with their three children, Adam, Rachel and Stephanie, and two Havanese puppies named Cody and Cooper.
Go to www.rickfrishman.com for more information and to get Rick’s “Million Dollar Rolodex”.
Ben J. Hancock, Jr., Senior Vice President
Mr. Hancock possesses a strong level of knowledge and expertise that he contributes to all facets of Morgan James Publishing. He has served as a personal advisor to Morgan James Publishing since its conception and one of his many jobs is to oversee our growing Sales Team.
Ben devoted over 40 years of service to a large Corporation in the Virginia area with 30 plus years at the managerial level. It was during his years in management that he oversaw several aspects with the company including insuring the highest level of workmanship and quality control. At one point he was managing and directing as many as 150 people at a time.
After his retirement in 1998 he formed his own company, Hancock Marine and Industrial Services, Inc. As an Independent Marketing Representative he was able to provide services to small privately owned companies as well as to his former employer by initiating new avenues of outsourcing. This move saved many dollars and gave them quality work that had been lacking before. He continues to serve the industry as needed.
Since the late 1970’s, Mr. Hancock has been serving on the Board of Directors for Hampton Christian Schools, Inc. as well as serving as an Elder at New Covenant Church in Hampton, Virginia. Ben has a heart to serve wherever there is a need to see any organization or individual meet their goal.
Cindy Sauer, Director of Administration
Mrs. Sauer, our Director of Administration and the first employee of Morgan James Publishing, brings experience in finance and customer service to the table. She has worked in the Customer Service field for over 20 years. Her previous employer was a large financial institution at which she held various positions that ranged from Head Teller to Member Relations/Collections Coordinator.
Cindy attended Elim Bible College in Lima, New York and maintains sound principles and values on which to build solid relationships with our authors and with our staff. Her door is always open and her phone never stops.
Neil Gudovitz, Foreign Rights Director
Neil Gudovitz is our Waterside Productions Foreign Rights Director, responsible for the licensing of books for translation for a wide variety of publishers and authors. For Waterside, Neil handles general non-fiction, body/mind/spirit, business books, computer books, children’s books and literary fiction. Neil works out of Waterside’s New York location.
Neil joined Waterside in the Spring of 2002 from The Coriolis Group, where he was the foreign rights manager from 1996-2001. Neil grew Coriolis’ list of publishing partnerships from a handful of foreign publishers to over (100) publishers in more than (25) language markets, negotiating some (250) contracts per year. Neil shares especially close relationships with the literary agents who control much of the rights market in the lucrative Asian markets. He has enjoyed great success with numerous publishers in other key language markets such as French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Dutch and Arabic.
Neil met Waterside founder and President Bill Gladstone through his work at Coriolis, especially the many translations he negotiated on behalf of Waterside author Ed Tittel and “Under the Radar”, the autobiography of Red Hat CEO Robert Young which Bill placed with Coriolis.
Immediately upon leaving Coriolis, Neil came upon the idea to form a collective of well-regarded independent publishers and authors who lack the information, access and resources to maximize their foreign rights potential. Bill Gladstone and Neil share an enthusiasm for the potential of independent publishers and authors in the foreign rights trade and thus the birth of the Waterside Foreign Rights division. The goal of this division is to maximize foreign rights opportunities for books which might not receive the attention they deserve from larger publishing houses and their factory-driven approach towards foreign rights.
Neil has also worked in the subsidiary rights department at Farrar, Straus & Giroux and has managed foreign rights for various imprints owned by the Thomson group of publishers. Neil holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a JD from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. In his free time, Neil enjoys playing and watching all sports not involving water or objects on wheels, reading fiction and discussing politics day and night.