Who Am I?

I probably should have started my blog by giving you my background.

Let's start by stating that I turned 60 this past summer......yeah, I know....old.

Grew up on Long Island, first in Merrick and then Great Neck and I still live on Long Island today.

My first job out of college was with a firm called Kroll Associates, Inc., which was an investigation firm of white collar crime, specializing in the printing industry at the time.  While working there one of our clients was Rolling Stone magazine which was launching a new magazine at the time, called Outside.  After working on the launch of Outside magazine, I was very fortunate for Rolling Stone to offer me the job as Director of Manufacturing and Distribution when they moved from San Francisco to New York.  I worked there for three years and it was truly an amazing experience.  The highlight of that job had to have been when Elvis passed away and we had to redesign the entire issue virtually overnight and get to press within a day or two.

After working at Rolling Stone and armed with a background in printing, I decided to give printing sales a shot.  I sold publication printing for a couple of years and then commercial printing to publishers for a few years.  I finally started my own printing brokerage firm which only printed promotional material for New York publishers.  In 1992, my father's partner Roberta Grossman passed away at the very young age of 46.  At the same time my father was in the process of trying to sell the Company to Harlequin; a deal that ended up never being completed.  While Roberta was in the hospital and the Harlequin deal was pending my father asked me to sit with him and just be there to help out any way I could.  After her untimely passing, my father said he wasn't getting any younger, although he was only 69 at the time; and asked me to join Kensington.  I sold my printing business and started my career in publishing.

In 1997, I was promoted to President of Kensington and in 2005, to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  My father continued working side by side with me until August 2010 when he became too ill  to come to the office any longer and he passed away in March, 2011 at 87 years of age.  I was extremely fortunate to spend close to 20 years working side by side with a man who was considered a legend in the business and was able to compete with the giants of the industry.  My son, Adam Zacharius joined the firm about 7 years ago and worked for us in our Los Angeles developing film interest in our books and looking for West Coast writers.  After the passing of my dad, Adam moved to New York with his wife, a little over a year ago.  He now sits in the office my father occupied and one day he will have his opportunity to run the Company as well.....but he's going to have to wait a while yet....after all my dad worked until he was 87.

On a personal note I've been married to my wife Robin for 23 years and I also have a daughter who lives nearby.  We're very fortunate to have a 3 year old adorable granddaughter from my daughter and her husband a new three month old cutie pie baby boy from my son and his wife.  (The Zacharius name will continue) !!!  I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I also have a younger sister who decided many years ago to move to Fairbanks, AK......  we're still trying to figure out why :)