Ingram Content Group has named Steph Opitz director of publishing services at Consortium Book Sales & Distribution. The appointment comes six months after Ingram launched a national search for a successor to longtime Consortium president Julie Schaper, who in September announced her plans to retire.
In her new role, which she will assume on April 6, the Minneapolis-based Opitz will report to Meredith Greenhouse, VP and general manager of Ingram Publisher Services.
Opitz has worked for Bookshop.org since 2022, most recently serving as director of bookstore partnerships. She represented the company at Winter Institute 2026, where word spread among the presses during the week of her appointment.
Schaper, who is retiring in June after working for 32 years at Consortium, has served as president since 2001 and was a PW Notable in 2025. She plans to guide Opitz through the next three months to ensure a smooth transition.
"I love Bookshop,” Opitz told PW. “But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can’t pass this up.”
Consortium distributes books for 145 clients, with another 25 inactive clients remaining in its portfolio. Founded in 1985 by Bill Brinton as a book wholesaling cooperative, the company specializes in books for the trade, niche, and academic markets, and is best known for its portfolio of literary presses and poetry publishers. Consortium was an independent distribution company until it was sold to Perseus in 2006, which was then acquired by Ingram in 2016.
In an email, Greenhouse said that Consortium is “thrilled to welcome Steph, whose experience, vision, and passion for the literary world will help us continue to elevate these extraordinary presses and connect their books with readers everywhere.”
The company's 17-person team, which includes sales and marketing personnel as well as operations and back-office staff, works out of the Keg House Arts Building in Minneapolis.
Prior to joining Bookshop.org, Optiz was the founding director of Wordplay at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis from 2017-2022, and organized the largest literary festival in Minnesota. She has also curated literary events and festivals elsewhere as literary director of the Texas Book Festival (2013-2015), fiction co-chair of the Brooklyn Book Festival (2011-2017), and a member of the programs team for the PEN World Voices Festival (2016-2017). Opitz also served as membership director for the Council for Literary Magazines and Presses from 2010–2013.
Meredith Greenhouse's surname has been corrected from an earlier version of this story.
