We’ve long been known in the industry as a place with real human beings that have years of experience and expertise. About half the company has been working here for over a decade—some for over two decades—but we’ve also been adding people in every department since the beginning of 2020 when the pandemic hit to further strengthen our staff and services, to better support the customers, publishers, and authors we serve in a time of transition, and to remain both flexible in what we can offer and firmly rooted in human service.
So whether it's knowledge of the history and current trends in publishing, helping authors navigate book sales and the speaking circuit, how to customize books for a specific audience or client, or our intimate and hard-earned knowledge of how to physically move books around the country and around the world on a specific deadline, we offer a wealth of knowledge and experience to help you steer your book and your message in a constantly changing and sometimes chaotic industry.
We are a human company
Sales
Sales Director
Aaron Schleicher
| 414-220-4459
aaron@porchlightbooks.com
Aaron is the director of sales for Porchlight. You can usually find him hidden under a baseball cap, feet kicked up on his desk, talking with authors, publishers, agents, and business people from all walks of life. Call him to find out how Porchlight can help you get your book into the hands of readers around the globe. Outside the office you can find him relaxing on his front porch enjoying a cold beverage with friends, gardening with his wife and two dogs, listening to records, or hosting private secret garden concerts during the summer months.
Sales Specialist
Dan Brouchoud
he/him | 414-220-4451
dan@porchlightbooks.com
Dan, proud father of two wrecking balls, spent the last two decades making drinks for people in lieu of most valid intellectual pursuits. As he staggered free from the haze of odd concoctive reflex into the broad glow of daylight, books led the way. While laboring under the recurring hallucination that he may be part duck to applying the work of vaunted vegetable fermenters, Dan stays quite occupied. He once spent a month in Indonesia and it’s possible he bartered his ghost for arak at a water palace called Tirta Gangga and hasn’t fully returned. His basement contains a neglected pottery studio and a well-used, massive, growing collection of board games.
Custom Projects Coordinator
Emily Brzezinski
she/her | 414-220-4449
emilyb@porchlightbooks.com
Emily gets excited when clients send her boxes and bags filled with customized materials for book orders. It’s all in the details for Emily who works to make sure the big bag Excel sheet is neat and tidy for Custom Projects to run smoothly. When not working on book orders Emily is probably thrifting for vintage clothes, giving tours around Milwaukee, or watching true crime documentaries at home with her boyfriend and cat named Bo Peep.
Corporate Sales Specialist
Andrew Pecunia
| 414-220-4448
andrewp@porchlightbooks.com
Andrew is the Corporate Sales Strategist at Porchlight, bridging businesses with great books. He helps organizations enhance their processes, foster stronger relationships, and support employee development through bulk book initiatives such as corporate reading clubs, employee resource groups, and client gifting programs.
Outside the office, you can find him experimenting with new recipes, competing on the disc golf course, and cheering on his favorite teams, the Bucks and Packers. Andrew currently resides in Bay View with his girlfriend and two cats.
Corporate Partnerships Coordinator
Elizabeth de Cleyre
she/her | 414-220-4456
elizabeth@porchlightbooks.com
As the Corporate Partnerships Coordinator, Elizabeth connects great people with great books. She serves as the liaison between organizations seeking books to inspire change, address challenges, and engage with their teams or clients, and the publishers and authors who provide compelling perspectives and fresh ideas.
Elizabeth has a rich background in the written word. She is the founder of Heron Press and a co-founder of Dotters Books, an independent bookstore in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In her free time, she enjoys a variety of hobbies and activities, including reading, cheering for the Milwaukee Bucks, playing pond hockey in the winter, kayaking and swimming in the summer, and sewing clothes.
Customer Service
Customer Service Manager
Meg Bacik
she/her | 414-220-4461
meg@porchlightbooks.com
Meg was first hired to work in accounting back when Porchlight was still known as Schwartz Business Books (three name iterations ago). Realizing she had more interest in helping people than adding up numbers, she moved to customer service and has sat next to her Roy-friend ever since, shipping books around the world and acting as Porchlight’s enthusiast-in-chief. Outside of work, when she’s not on an international adventure, camping in one of Wisconsin’s many great state parks, or hanging out with her husband and dog at Acme Records & Music Emporium, she can be found riding her bike around Milwaukee in search of the perfect margarita.
Senior Customer Service Specialist
Roy Normington
he/him | 414-220-4460
roy@porchlightbooks.com
Growing up reading mystery and fantasy books, Roy has had aspirations to share the books he loved with others, to spread books to the masses. After moving to Milwaukee almost 30 years ago, his dream came true. He started working in Harry W. Schwartz's business division, which has now blossomed into the niche, bulk book sales operation that is Porchlight. Besides connecting people to books, Roy also enjoys traveling, piano, painting, trying out new vegetarian recipes and being a slave to a cat.
Customer Service Specialist
Ava Bush
she/they | 414-220-4455
ava@porchlightbooks.com
Ava has been a member of the Porchlight customer service team since 2022. In her role, she guides publishers, authors, and readers through the logistics of book orders from start to finish. She enjoys helping customers find the right book to meet their needs and works to ensure timely delivery to destinations around the world.
Prior to joining Porchlight, Ava worked in an elementary school library, where she regularly put her theater background to use during storytime with her students. Outside of work, you can find her working on embroidery and stained glass projects, riding her bike, and attending local shows.
Marketing
Marketing & Editorial Director
Dylan Schleicher
he/him | 414-220-4465
dylan@porchlightbooks.com
Dylan has been a part of Porchlight since 2003. After beginning in shipping and receiving, he moved through customer service (with some accounting on the side) before entering into his current, highly elliptical orbit of duties overseeing the marketing and editorial aspects of the company. Outside of work, you’ll find him volunteering or playing basketball at his kids’ school, catching the weekly summer concert at the Washington Park Bandshell, or strolling through one of the many other parks or green spaces around his home in Milwaukee (most likely his own gardens). He lives with his wife and two children in the Washington Heights neighborhood on Milwaukee's West Side.
Creative Director
Gabriella Cisneros
she/her | 414-220-4467
gabbi@porchlightbooks.com
Gabbi is a moderately bilingual artist whose passion for storytelling extends from reading to filmmaking, video editing, writing, photography, and social media. Working at Porchlight is kind of a dream job for someone who has a 55 page, indexed document of interesting words she’s found in books. Gabbi regularly makes time for taking photos, traveling, attending concerts, trying new restaurants, blogging, fitness, and—of course—reading.
Managing Editor
Jasmine Gonzalez
she/her/ella | 414-220-4454
jasmine@porchlightbooks.com
Jasmine has been a part of the Porchlight marketing and editorial team since 2022. The youngest daughter of a high school history teacher and a local business leader, one of her earliest memories involves toddling over to the living room bookshelf and reading aloud all of the titles on the book spines. She’s been voraciously reading and writing in English and Spanish ever since. Outside of work, you can find her cooking intricate recipes, playing video games on vintage consoles, and fulfilling her role as the very cool aunt that gives books and Rolling Stones vinyls as gifts. Yes, she would like to befriend your dog.
Technology
Technology Director
Zach Karpinski
Zach is our Director of Technology, overseeing all aspects of technology and web development for the company, as well as caring for all of our servers. Books like Rework and Getting Real by the team at 37 Signals and The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda influence his work. Zach lives with his wife Kristin and their three children in Shorewood.
Accounting
Controller
Marie Montalbano
she/her | 414-220-4446
marie@porchlightbooks.com
At a company all about the written word, Marie is Porchlight’s top numbers cruncher. In her role as Controller, her responsibilities include calculating and presenting financial results, ensuring compliance with all state and federal financial laws, and, most importantly, being a financial partner to the team at Porchlight. She’s been working in accounting since 1984 and loves what she does. A Milwaukee native with stints in Florida & Texas, she’s the proud mom of a 25-year-old son, a 2-year-old pug, and a 3-year-old Norwegian Forest mix cat. In her free time, she enjoys international travel, boating, gardening, home remodeling, and of course, reading.
Accounts Payable
Dawn Montalbano
she/her |
dawn@porchlightbooks.com
Dawn joined Porchlight in 2021, bringing over 30 years of experience in the accounting field with her. Dawn spends her quiet time reading, using her coloring app, and binge-watching Netflix. And as much as she loves numbers, she cherishes her two beautiful daughters even more. For fun, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, going out to eat, seeing musicals, watching movies, attending festivals, and traveling.
Jonathan Engelken
| 414-220-4452 ext 120
jengelken@porchlightbooks.com
Jonathan first joined Porchlight as a packager in the warehouse before moving to his current role in Accounts Receivable. In his own words, he spends his days “chasing customers and saying, ‘I want my two dollars!’” Outside of work, Jonathan loves to travel, returning often to San Francisco to “explore its freakiness.” You can also find him engaging in a battle of wits with his 8-year-old, listening to audiobooks, and taking long walks in his neighborhood, often grumbling about speeding cars not stopping.
Warehouse & Custom Projects
Receiving & Inventory Specialist
Mike Schauwitzer
he/him |
mike@porchlightbooks.com
Mike joined us in 2014 to shore up our ever-expanding special projects and customizations operation, and to provide support to our shipping/receiving and logistics. Although many people here will tell you he looks like he's sixteen, he is actually a fifty-nine-year-old family man with 24 children. And like Satchel Page pitching for the Kansas City Athletics at age 59 in 1965, Mike proves you can still contribute in the big leagues at an advanced age, so long as you have a little gumption and a lot of liniment.
Logistics & Warehouse Manager
Todd Lazarski
he/him | 414-220-4462
todd@porchlightbooks.com
Todd has been the primary Shipper/Receiver at 800-CEO-READ since 2007, and is currently our Logistics & Warehouse Manager. When he’s not counting boxes, printing labels, moving pallets or making the UPS guy sweat, he is pursuing a freelance writing career (read him unfiltered at toddlazarski.com), writing novels (his first, Make the Road by Walking, was published in 2016), honing his jump shot, or sitting on the couch with a cold beer and his guitar. He lives with his wife and daughter on Milwaukee’s South Side.
Fulfillment & Logistics Specialist
Andrew Koenig
he/him | 414-220-4457
andrew@porchlightbooks.com
Andrew is now on the warehouse team at Porchlight Books. He's worked plenty of jobs at Porchlight since 2011, both in the warehouse and the office: from helping out with shipping/receiving and special projects to working on the sales team. In his spare time at work, you might find him in the warehouse, taking a short break by imitating his favorite Milwaukee Bucks on the warehouse basketball hoop. When not in the office, Andrew is often on tour with the band Buffalo Gospel in addition to playing in an ever-shifting number of bands in the Milwaukee area.
Production & Design Lead
Terry Tayler
he/him | 414-220-4447
terry@porchlightbooks.com
Terry is the Production & Design Lead who enjoys getting your orders out the door! An avid horror film buff and graphic novel reader, Terry enjoys watching films long forgotten. Outside of work he enjoys painting at his studio in downtown Milwaukee.
Operations
Client Services Director
Ryan Schleicher
he/him | 414-220-4443
ryan@porchlightbooks.com
Ryan began his career in books as a bookseller in the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops. He joined 800-CEO-READ (now Porchlight) as the shipper/receiver, but has done almost every job here. He has also worked as a stevedore in New Orleans and Marketing Director and program host at WMSE. As Special Sales Director, Ryan taps into all of that experience to come up with creative solutions for the often elaborate bookselling scenarios he encounters. When not at work, he similarly multi-tasks on his farm, where he lives with his wife, two daughters, seven horses, two dogs, a house cat, a barn cat and—before a hawk and a fox intervened—six chickens. If you think you have a book scenario that is more challenging than that, he’d like to hear it.
Logistics Director
Michael Jantz
he/him | 414-220-4445
michael@porchlightbooks.com
Michael went to work at 800-CEO-READ (now Porchlight), an institution about which he knew little, in mid-2012, to oversee “special projects.” Not knowing exactly what that might mean, he now knows it is a task that corrals any number of imaginable alterations and re-imaginings of the umpteen books Porchlight sells day after day. It is a happy time for Michael, whose love of books and good company has found the Porchlight office and philosophy to be like nutrient-rich compost to his hungry, burrowing roots.
Leadership
Managing Director
Sally Haldorson
she/her | 414-220-4444
sally@porchlightbooks.com
Sally’s mission as Porchlight’s Managing Director is to make Porchlight a great place to work for employees, and a consistently high-performing service organization for everyone in or orbiting the publishing industry. After 25 years working in book retail, she has developed a penchant for business strategy, both as a socio-economic force and a literary genre. Happy to put her English and Creative Writing degrees to work, she helped craft three editions of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, and she reads, writes, and reviews for the company’s marketing team. Sally lives north of Milwaukee with her husband, son, and dog, and, in her spare time, rather doggedly works to perfect her writing skills and her tennis game, unsure which is the more Sisyphean endeavor.
Owner, President & CEO
Rebecca Schwartz
she/her |
rebecca@porchlightbooks.com
Rebecca is Porchlight Book Company’s owner, President, and CEO, and has been in the book business all her life: for the first 30 years working on and off at the Milwaukee bookshop begun by her grandfather, Harry W. Schwartz, and then for over two decades sharing exceptional literature with high schoolers in English class. She knows that finding the right book at the right time, whether as a CEO or a student, is key to finding direction and inspiration. If she had her way, Toni Morrison and Mark Twain would share space on every businessperson’s shelf along with Priya Parker and Seth Godin.
Chair
Carol Grossmeyer
she/her |
carol@porchlightbooks.com
Carol now lives in Seattle, but as Porchlight's Co-owner and Board Chair, she is committed to ensuring the best work experience for employees, the best book-buying experience for customers, and that—in the words of her late husband of two decades, A. David Schwartz—the company remembers that the “true profit in bookselling is the profit to the community.” Virtual communication keeps her connected to the business and the people she loves at the company today. Away from work, Carol loves sharing a good meal, a bottle of red, and some lively discussion about independent film and the newest fiction.
Photos by Kat Schleicher Photography