As executive vice president and publisher at Audible, the world’s leading site for spoken audio, Beth Anderson is all about books. She’s been a bookworm since girlhood. In college, she majored in history and was a four-sport athlete (swimming, lacrosse, soccer, and rugby).

In 1996, she left traditional book publishing to start at Audible, the eleventh person hired by the company that now employs hundreds. She’s had many triumphs at work, including publishing Society’s Child by singer-songwriter Janice Ian, an autobiography that won the 2013 Grammy for best spoken-word album, but she is most proud of “making it easier for millions of people to fill their lives with books.”

Fittingly, she serves on the Cornell University Library Advisory Council.

Coming from a family of Cornellians—namely her mom, dad, brother, and aunt—Beth says, “I remember Mom singing the alma mater to me in the bathtub when I was little.”