Martin Manley
Encyclopedia
Martin Manley is a former US Assistant Secretary of Labor, developer of a US government agency
Government agency
A government or state agency is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an intelligence agency. There is a notable variety of agency types...

, entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 and founder of online bookseller Alibris
Alibris
Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used books, out-of-print books, rare books, and other media through an online network of independent booksellers....

.

Early career

Manley was born in Azusa
Azusa
Azusa is a Japanese feminine given name.Azusa may also refer to:*Azusa, California, a city in the United States*Azusa Street Revival, a Christian movement that began in Los Angeles*AZUSA - Radar interferometer*Azusa Yamamoto, a Japanese model and actress...

, California and attended Lowell High School
Lowell High School (Whittier, California)
Lowell High School was a public high school in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District from September 1961 until June 1980, when it was closed because of declining student enrollment. It was a four-year institution, with students coming primarily from Rancho-Cañada and Starbuck Junior High...

 in Whittier, California. During the 1970s and early 1980s, Manley was a prominent California labor organizer. He held held positions with the Hotel, Restaurant Workers in Monterey, California(now UNITE
Unite
- Labor unions :*Unite the Union, a British and Irish trade union, formed by the merger of Amicus and T&G*Unite Union, a trade union in New Zealand*Unite Union , a trade union in Australia...

), Hospital Workers Local 250 of the Service Employees (SEIU), and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is an AFL-CIO/CLC trade union representing approx. 646,933 workers as of 2006 in more than 200 industries.-Formation and early history:...

 (IAM). He was among the earliest union organizers in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

, directed a large community-based campaign in Silicon Valley during the1984 US Presidential election, and was a frequent and prominent critic of AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...

 President Lane Kirkland
Lane Kirkland
Joseph Lane Kirkland was a US labor union leader who served as President of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.-Biography:...

.

Following the 1984 presidential election, Manley became one of the few union leaders to enter Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...

, where he graduated with distinction in 1987 and joined McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company, Inc. is a global management consulting firm that focuses on solving issues of concern to senior management. McKinsey serves as an adviser to many businesses, governments, and institutions...

 in San Francisco.

Government service

In 1993, the newly elected Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

, appointed Manley as US Assistant Secretary of Labor under Secretary of Labor Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich is an American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997....

.

Manley proposed to create a new federal agency which became the US Department of Labor's Office of the American Workplace (OAW) after confirmation by the president and senate. The OAW was charged with promoting innovation in US workplaces.

Alibris

In 1997 Manley founded the major e-commerce bookseller Alibris
Alibris
Alibris is an online store that sells new books, used books, out-of-print books, rare books, and other media through an online network of independent booksellers....

 and served as the company's CEO for 10 years. Alibris integrates inventory from second-hand booksellers from around the world and is considered a classic example of a Long Tail
Long tail
Long tail may refer to:*The Long Tail, a consumer demographic in business*Power law's long tail, a statistics term describing certain kinds of distribution*Long-tail boat, a type of watercraft native to Southeast Asia...

 ecommerce retailer.

By 2000, Alibris was a significant internet retailer cited by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

for having “radically changed the buying and selling of used books”. Oak Hill Capital purchased Alibris in 2006.
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