Chiev Executive Officer - Lyrasis

Lyrasis is a mission-driven nonprofit that provides technology, content, and shared services to libraries, archives, museums, and other knowledge communities. Through its scale, expertise, and collaborative approach, Lyrasis helps these institutions expand access to information, preserve and share cultural heritage, strengthen their technology infrastructure, and increase their impact. Lyrasis is a fully remote organization with a staff of over 110 employees, more than 1,000 member institutions and thousands of other organizations that use its products, services, and programs.

Lyrasis operates as both a membership organization and a service provider. Many of its products and services are available to members and non-members alike, allowing organizations to partner with Lyrasis based on their individual needs. Members receive preferential pricing, access to specialized services and programs, voting rights in the Board of Directors elections, and are invited to participate in discussions that help shape Lyrasis’ priorities.

This model allows Lyrasis to combine the collective strength of a membership organization with the reach and capabilities of a large-scale technology and services enterprise.

Supported by organization-wide functions spanning Membership, Human Resources, Fiscal Services, IT, and Operations, Lyrasis delivers its products and services through three primary departments:

• Content & Scholarly Communication Initiatives
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  Helps institutions access content more affordably and advance new models for scholarly communication. Lyrasis uses its collective scale to negotiate e-content licensing and pricing, supports open-access initiatives and open research infrastructure, and works with partners to develop more equitable and sustainable approaches to accessing and sharing scholarly content.
• Community Supported Technologies & Hosting Services
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  Provides a sustainable home and infrastructure for important open-source technologies used by libraries, archives, and museums. Lyrasis supports technologies including Archives Space, DSpace, Fedora, and VIVO, while providing hosting and related services that help institutions manage, preserve, and provide access to digital collections and research.
• Ebooks & Community Engagement
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  Expands how libraries provide and create digital content for their communities. Through The Palace Project, The Indie Author Project, and Biblio Board, Lyrasis provides ebook access and marketplace solutions, helps libraries discover and elevate local authors, and offers tools for collecting and sharing locally created digital content.

Lyrasis fosters a workplace culture that embodies its values of communication, respect, collaboration, and service. The organization is committed to building a future that is inclusive, equitable, accessible, and sustainable. Formed in 2009 through the merger of three regional library networks with legacies dating back to 1936, Lyrasis has continued to expand its reach and capabilities, through its merger with Dura Space and the acquisition of Biblio Labs.

Lyrasis is deeply grateful to outgoing CEO John Wilkin, who will retire after four years of transformative leadership. John stepped into the role following a period of significant expansion and helped lead Lyrasis through tremendous growth, with gross revenue increasing from $88 million in FY22 to $134 million in FY26. Even more defining has been the significant cultural transformation under his leadership.

John has played a pivotal role in strengthening Lyrasis internally, leading organizational restructuring that realigned departments, teams, and reporting relationships to create a more cohesive and collaborative organization. These changes have fostered greater staff voice, shared…