Each year, Caldwell Partners International chooses 40 Canadians who were under 40 in the past year to honour for their outstanding achievements. Click here to learn more about the program, and find more winners in the list below.
With a love of reading inspired by her teacher mother, coupled with an economics degree, Ms. Horgan found herself the perfect challenge: to be in charge of strategic planning for Indigo Books and Music at a time when traditional media are competing with the digital realm.
Even when she goes on vacation, “The first day is spent picking out books,” she said. But these days, she doesn’t just love the printed version.
“When I’m travelling, I love booting up my Kobo,” she said about the company’s electronic reader.
The Kobo is an example of how the company is rising to the challenge of digital reading. Indigo is also expanding into toys and lifestyle items to complement books and Ms. Horgan’s team is charged with marketing the evolution of the brand to consumers.
Ms. Horgan was always interested in numbers and problem solving, she said, one of the reasons she gravitated toward studying economics at the University of Western Ontario. Her first job was with management consultants The Boston Consulting Group. She wanted to try working on the client side and was seconded to Indigo for a year to create an online strategy. When it launched, she was asked to stay on full-time and she ended up responsible for overall marketing, brand management and overall strategy.
“Right now, with digital reading on the rise, these are exciting times.”
For instance, her team has worked on launching a new rewards program called Plum Rewards that will include personalized recommendations based on readers’ preferences.
But Ms. Horgan describes her role as helping the company be “about more than books. We want to be thought of as a retail destination that enriches people’s lives.”
She is married and has a son, Dylan. Ms. Horgan’s love of reading also extends to her community work. She helped create Indigo’s Love of Reading foundation, which has raised more than $10-million to bring new books and educational materials to high-needs schools.
She also works with the Marketing Hall of Legends mentor program and spent several years was involved with the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
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