News & Events

Greg Josefowicz, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Borders Group, Inc., will talk about his company’s global expansion as part of the William Davidson Institute’s Corporate Speaker Series April 13 at Phelps Lounge.

Greg Josefowicz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Borders Group, Inc.

Josefowicz’s speech, titled “Looking Beyond the Border,” will outline the company’s global strategy, what’s behind it and why it’s so different than its competitors.

Borders Group remains the only U.S. book retailer to open stores around the globe. It has grown from a single bookshop on the University of Michigan campus to a $3.9 billion global retailer of books, music and movies with approximately 1,200 Borders and Waldenbooks stores worldwide.

A March 18 Wall Street Journal article discussed the company’s global outreach.

"They've been good in picking locations, and their superstores don't have the competition in Western Europe that they have in the U.S.," David Dreman, chairman and chief investment officer of Dreman Value Management LLC, was quoted as saying in the article.

The article quotes Derek Leckow, an analyst with Barrington Research in Chicago, as saying that Borders has "an early lead in English-speaking parts of the world, where their competition tends to be independent stores that don't have as broad a selection of titles."

Josefowicz joined Borders Group in November 1999. As CEO, he provides leadership toward the company’s achievement of its four-point strategic plan:

• Building the core Borders superstore business with a special emphasis on maintaining strength in books as the centerpiece of the Borders brand.
• Driving superstore growth beyond the U.S. into primarily English-speaking countries where consumers are embracing the Borders brand.
• Leveraging alliances and technology inside and outside our stores. By offering Web-enabled, self-help kiosks throughout our stores, and by teaming with leading brands such as Amazon.com, Ingram, Paperchase and Seattle’s Best Coffee, Borders Group delivers an outstanding customer shopping experience while focusing on its core strength in bookselling.
• Maximizing potential at Waldenbooks by reinvigorating and right sizing the mall store base, and investing in growth vehicles such as seasonal business, airport stores and outlet stores.
  Before joining Borders Group, Josefowicz had a long career with Jewel-Osco, a Midwest food and drug store chain. He began at Jewel-Osco as a high school student in 1968, and over the years worked his way up through posts in merchandising, marketing and operations before achieving the title of company president in 1997.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Josefowicz also holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and serves on the school’s Management Advisory Board.

He also is a member of the board of advisors of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and of the Michigan District of Key Bank, both located in Ann Arbor, Mich. In addition, he serves on the board of directors of PetsMart, a leading pet supply and services retailer, as well as the metal services company, Ryerson Tull.

The speech by Josefowicz is at 4:30 p.m. in Phelps Lounge at the Ross School of Business and will be followed by a question and answer session. A reception will be held immediately afterwards.