Early this morning, the staff of the Vancouver-based Raincoast Books gathered in the company warehouse for an announcement from founder and CEO Allan MacDougall. Rather than let the company hear it from someone else, the 62-year-old MacDougall decided to break the news himself: he is stepping down as CEO in order to spend more time with his family.

The new CEO, effective today, is former vice-president and business manager John Sawyer, who had been handling most of the day-to-day operations for the past year or so. Sawyer has been with the company for 16 years, and he is the chief architect of its current shipping, marketing, and finance systems. In a phone conversation with Q&Q, Sawyer said that MacDougall first came to him with the promotion offer last summer, but that the plan had been kept under wraps until now.

For further details, see our coverage in Q&Q Omni.