Rich began his professional career teaching both English and Remedial English at the high school level. Motivated by his desire to improve the quality of products available to teachers, he joined McGraw-Hill Publishing Company as a sales representative. Rich progressed rapidly through positions of increasing responsibility as field sales manager and district sales manager. He later became Senior Product Manager of the Webster Division of McGraw-Hill where he was responsible for all marketing of elementary products. He was then appointed Director of Marketing Services of McGraw-Hill’s Gregg Division where he was responsible for all promotion, advertising and direct marketing.

In 1988, Rich began a successful twenty-year career with Zaner-Bloser, a Highlights for Children Company, as Vice President of Marketing. Zaner-Bloser publishes a broad range of products for reading, vocabulary, spelling, handwriting, and writing skills development. His motivational leadership along with his innovative approach to marketing helped the company enjoy strong, long term sales growth. Rich instituted the well-known Zaner-Bloser National Handwriting Contest, began sales advisory boards, brought creative research-based products to market, and designed highly successful lead generation programs that significantly increased revenues while reducing the cost of sales.

Rich brings thirty years of experience in sales and marketing of reading, language arts and vocabulary products to his responsibility for building national sales and distribution of WordBuild. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in English, from Georgetown University.