The board of directors of Tyndale House Publishers today elected longtime president Mark Taylor to serve as chairman of the board and CEO. The board also promoted Jeff Johnson to the role of president and chief operating officer. The transition in leadership follows the retirement of Charles W. Stair, who chaired his last meeting of the board of directors for Tyndale House in mid-December following a tenure of nearly 40 years.

Taylor has been working at Tyndale House since the company was founded in 1962. After graduating from Duke University in 1973, he became executive director of Tyndale House Foundation. In the next 11 years, he moved through various administrative positions in the company, and in 1984, he succeeded his father, Dr. Kenneth Taylor, as president and CEO. By becoming chairman as well as CEO, Taylor takes on the task of balancing the perspective of the board and that of the executive staff.

Johnson began at Tyndale as a stock runner in 1986. In 1988, he assumed the position of director of human resources and administrative services where he served for 10 years. During that period, Johnson oversaw three major building projects and coordinated the initiation of the 401(k) plan to replace the company's earlier pension plan. In 1998, he was promoted to the role of vice president of publishing services. During the next six years, Tyndale experienced phenomenal growth due to the success of the "Left Behind" series, which went on to sell over 60 million copies. Johnson was named chief operating officer in 2004. As COO, he was instrumental in the creation of Tyndale Español in 2005.

Stair commented on Johnson's transition.

“This is a natural next step for Jeff,” Stair said. “The addition of ‘president’ to his title signifies both inside the company and to the entire industry the confidence we have in Jeff’s present and future leadership.”

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