First Book Canada is a registered Canadian charity with offices in Toronto, serving children and young adults in this country. First Book is a recognized leader in social enterprise and has pioneered groundbreaking channels to provide new books at deeply reduced prices — and for free — to schools and programs serving children in need across Canada.
Tom Best
Executive Director
Tom Best is responsible for strategy, expansion, marketing and customer outreach for First Book Canada. As executive director, he develops and maintains relationships with First Book’s corporate and publishing partners; manages major gifts, grants and donor development; oversees the development of innovative cause-based marketing campaigns and promotes awareness of First Book Canada’s mission.
Tom is a veteran of the Canadian publishing industry, having held leadership positions with HarperCollins, Raincoast Books, CDG Books, Key Porter Books and H.B. Fenn. He has also served on Frontier College's Board of Governors, currently serves as the communications chair for the National Reading Campaign and was instrumental in the creation of Story Planet, a creative writing centre for children and young adults in the Toronto area.
Tom fondly remembers his first book, The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver, by Thornton W. Burgess.
Wayne Cochrane
Director of Operations
Wayne Cochrane provides strategic insight and logistics and management expertise, and is responsible for managing the First Book National Book Bank and the First Book Marketplace (scheduled to launch in late 2011). He is responsible for connecting local community organizations to First Book resources on an ongoing basis, identifying new operational partnerships and supporting First Book's corporate, fundraising and publishing partners.
Wayne has extensive experience in service delivery, volunteer management, event-planning and community development in the nonprofit sector.
One of his favorite authors is Ian Wallace who wrote The Sandwich; named a Canadian classic in April 1981 by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre in Toronto.