Our Team

Howard W. Fisher is the founder and a Managing Director of The Fisher Company. The Fisher Company was established in 2002 to provide strategic advice to corporate and entrepreneurial publishers with a focus on mergers and acquisitions. The company has worked with more than 120 publishers from around the world in an advisory or consulting capacity.

With 30 years’ prior experience as a book publisher he had the opportunity to be involved with all aspects of publishing. Howard has co-founded, built, and sold two successful trade book publishing companies, HPBooks to Knight-Ridder Newspapers, and Fisher Books to Perseus Publishing. He has experience in creating, developing, acquiring, and selling successful publishing companies both as an executive and advisor.

Des Higgins is a Managing Director of The Fisher Company. Des is a senior book publishing executive with extensive international experience in both trade and educational publishing. Over the last 39 years in the publishing industry he has been responsible for book publishers in Australia, Belgium, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. While CEO of Bonnier Publishing UK he oversaw a group of publishers with annual sales of more than $100 million with 250 employees.

Since 2009 Des has specialized in advising both buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions in the media sector who are looking to find new owners or additional investment. He is a key advisor to overseas buyers of publishing companies who are seeking to grow by acquisition. Des provides an enviable range of high-level contacts in the larger media groups throughout the USA, UK, China, Singapore, Japan, and Europe who are actively seeking to make acquisitions of suitable publishers, both print and digital.

Miriam Warren, a Director of the Fisher Company, brings experience in academic, association, and trade publishing with extensive knowledge of print production, editing, design, operations and distribution at for-profit and mission-based houses.

Miriam’s eleven years in academic publishing give her a comprehensive knowledge of their specific needs, from acquisition and peer review process through print and ebook production. Her academic and trade experience includes budget creation, scheduling, design, editing, workflow analysis, data management, inventory management, and distribution.

Serving on the board of directors for Publisher’s Association of the West, Miriam has presented on publishing panels and developed course material for programs.

Steve is an executive in the educational and professional publishing industry with over 35 years’ experience and specialization in the Spanish-speaking and Latin American publishing and media markets.

He has held P&L leadership positions in domestic and international postings at Pearson, McGraw-Hill, HMH, Grupo Santillana and Grupo SM, responsible for up to $70M in annual revenue and 425 employees. He is a successful turnaround leader and operator, experienced in the management of international mergers and acquisitions, as well in global sales management and marketing, international new market development and large-scale project management.

Marbán has also worked as contracted project lead for the Center for Applied Linguistics, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Education Relief Foundation, and with the Ministries of Education in Mexico, Panama and Ecuador, among others. He is a mission-driven and passionate operator with deep experience in content development and integration as well as educational technology and e-learning, educational assessment, and contextualized professional development for teachers. He is personally dedicated to supporting education as a driver of social development in emerging markets and is fully bilingual and bi-cultural English-Spanish. Marbán earned his B.A. from Tulane University in economics with a second major in Russian literature and participated in graduate level executive education courses at INSEAD in Singapore. He is a lifetime honorary member of NABE, the National Association for Bilingual Education, and has served on the CANIEM or Chamber of Commerce for Publishing in Mexico.

Douglas Pfeiffer, a Director of The Fisher Company, is a book publishing executive with trade book and magazine publishing experience spanning forty years. He has worked for Kodansha Publishing (Tokyo), American West Publishing Company, Rono Graphic Communications, Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, and most recently he was the Publishing Director of Ingram Content Group’s book publishing laboratory, Graphic Arts Books for five years. His experience included senior management positions as well as editorial acquisitions, sales and marketing. He helped guide the acquisition of the assets of three publishers to expand the companies where he worked.

Douglas is an active member of the Publisher’s Association of the West (PubWest). He served seven years on the board of directors including two years as president. In 2015 he was inducted into the PubWest Hall of Fame.

Caroline Cook, an Associate at The Fisher Company, has worked in book publishing for sixteen years, with experience in educational, trade, and academic publishing. She has been involved in all aspects of publishing, including consulting, mergers and acquisitions, marketing, social media, editing, and production.

She managed the acquisition, editing, and production of a regional nonfiction line for five years. Since 2013 Caroline has worked on a freelance basis for multiple publishers in editing, production, and social media marketing.

Amit Sharma, Certified Management Accountant, is an Associate at The Fisher Company, has more than nine years of experience in consumer magazine publishing. Amit has played a pivotal role in mergers and acquisitions for a major international media company. He was a key member of the corporate M&A team and among his corporate duties was responsible for building robust platforms in business analytics, management reporting, corporate budgeting, and process transition.

Amit’s business analytics, financial planning, and M&A experience working for global brands such as Eli Global, SITEL India, and Jindal Intellicom span fifteen years of operations with a focus on bottom-line profitability and growth.

Lou Johnson has worked globally with hundreds of authors, brands, and businesses to shape and share their stories over a career spanning more than 30 years. Lou has held senior management roles at Simon and Schuster Murdoch Books, Mango Publishing Group,  Allen & Unwin, and Random House, managed the ABC’s retail concessions and founded and sold her own disruptive publishing startup, The Author People. 

Lou served as Vice President of the Australian Publishers Association, chaired and participated in numerous industry working groups, panels at writers’ festivals and retailer conferences, was a founding committee member of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and a board member of The Stella Prize.   

Now Lou is running Key People Literary Management with her co-founder Jeanne Ryckmans. She joins The Fisher Company to provide expertise in the Australian market.