Dark Horse has promoted Mark Bernardi to Vice President of Book Trade and Digital Sales, the company announced.  Bernardi will take over the duties of longtime VP – Trade Sales Michael Martens when he leaves the company on August 30 (see “Dark Horse VP Michael Martens Leaving the Company”), adding them to his current duties as Director of Digital Publishing. 

In his role in digital publishing, Bernardi has dealt with Dark Horse national book distributor Penguin Random House for ebooks; now he will be handling the print side of the relationship as well.  Bernardi ran Dark Horse’s newsstand distribution from 1996 to 2015, ran Dark Horse’s product sales division for a time, and provided sales and inventory analysis and marketing support for book trade sales. 

Bernardi spoke of the transition from Martens.  “Michael has done tremendous work helping to establish and grow Dark Horse’s book trade business, and I’m grateful to be working closely with him as I transition into my new role,” he said. 

Dark Horse President Mike Richardson endorsed the move.  “Mark has been an invaluable member of the Dark Horse team,” he said.  “He has big shoes to fill, but he’s uniquely qualified and we are extremely pleased to see him take on this new position.”