The Kepler’s Events Team
Heather Birchall, Program Manager for Premier Events
Heather is in charge of leading the booking and production of literary events with leading novelists, artists, and other cultural and political figureheads. Having held notable roles in museums in the UK, including at the V&A and Tate Britain, and for a Bay Area nonprofit, she brings her tremendous knowledge and passion for the book industry to Kepler’s.
Mariko Conner, Senior Marketing Manager
Mariko joined Kepler’s Literary Foundation after a decade of working in publishing and nonprofit arts organizations around the Bay Area. Most recently she helmed special projects for the Bay Area Book Festival. She is the coeditor, with Malcolm Margolin, of the 2014 anthology Trail Posts: A Literary Exploration of California’s State Parks.
Evan Karp, Development Manager
Evan came to Kepler’s through Reimagining Bookstores, to help with big picture thinking and behind the scenes production work. He’s covered the Bay Area literary world as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle; created the literary nonprofit Quiet Lightning and community hub Litseen.com; managed events programs for The Booksmith and Berkeley Arts & Letters; and served as a fiction juror for the California Book Awards. A poet and musician, he combines words and other sounds as Turk & Divis (with brother Miles) and Vata & the Vine (with poet Maw Shein Win).
Angie Coiro, host and producer of This Is Now With Angie Coiro
Angie’s voice and interview style have been staples for Bay Area radio, TV, and podcast fans since the 1990s. Fifteen of those years were at KQED as radio announcer, news anchor, host of Friday Forum, and TV pledge drive host. She moved to the national airwaves with Mother Jones Radio on Air America. She recently retired her syndicated radio show In Deep when it reached its fifteenth anniversary.
Our Board
Patrick Corman is a marketing and communications consultant who advises business leaders, associations, and communities on communications strategy. Patrick held senior positions at Regis McKenna and Edelman Public Relations before launching his own firm. His client list includes well-known companies, including Motorola, Verisign, RSA Security, and many others. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a graduate degree in English literature from San Francisco State University.
Dan Gilbert is a high-tech entrepreneur, executive, and investor with many years of experience working with leading U.S. companies, including McKinsey & Company, Andersen Consulting, Palm Inc., Cisco Systems, and Barnes & Noble. He serves on boards of both nonprofit and for-profit companies, including MIT, Band of Angels Acorn Fund, and QuakeFinder. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Praveen Madan is a business executive and social entrepreneur who has worked with well known companies including Microsoft, HP, Adobe Systems, A.T. Kearney, and Trilogy Software. He has extensive experience in community service through pro-bono work for non-profits including San Francisco Public Press, March of Dimes, and Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network. He is the CEO of Kepler’s Books, and CEO of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, a mission-based book publisher, and Heyday Publishers, a nonprofit book publisher. He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and the University of Texas at Austin.