About
We believe books provide a platform for bigger, more meaningful discussions that advance your ideas.
About Clyde Hill Publishing
Books remain powerful tools for communication, influence and learning. Books provide a platform for bigger, more meaningful discussions that advance your ideas. Our prospective authors—founders, innovators, tinkerers and thinkers—are often overlooked and underserved by today’s book publishing industry. Traditional publishers, agents and editors can put up barriers rather than facilitate the creation of a new book.
Clyde Hill Publishing believes your ideas, stories, lessons, experiences and legacy must be published. At first it may simply emerge as a speech or an article. We work with you in a flexible, nimble way to publish the book you want, and the reader deserves. Our focus is nonfiction, including a range of topics: business and technology, engineering, biography and memoir, law, public policy and the occasional sports book.
Clyde Hill Publishing believes your ideas, stories, lessons, experiences and legacy must be published. At first it may simply emerge as a speech or an article. We work with you in a flexible, nimble way to publish the book you want, and the reader deserves. Our focus is nonfiction, including a range of topics: business and technology, engineering, biography and memoir, law, public policy and the occasional sports book.
Meet the Team
Greg Shaw
Founding Investor
Greg Shaw is the founding investor in Clyde Hill Publishing, and has deep roots in all aspects of publishing, including content development and promotion. He began his career as a journalist in Oklahoma, and has worked on numerous successful publishing efforts including co-author of Satya Nadella’s Hit Refresh and Kevin Scott’s Reprogramming the American Dream. He is author of The Ability Hacks and The Future Computed: AI and Manufacturing. He assisted with Bill Gates and Peter Rinearson’s The Road Ahead as well as both the film and book aspects of the documentary, Waiting for Superman. He was CEO and publisher of Seattle’s Crosscut news, an independent editorial site that publishes long-form journalism and e-books. He served as an editor and publisher for John Rossman’s book, The Amazon Way and Think Like Amazon. Greg has been a communications executive at Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Claudia Rowe
Contributing Editor
Veteran print journalist and author Claudia Rowe has devoted much of her writing career to conveying complex ideas in penetrating, high-impact prose. She is known across the industry for writing that powerfully illuminates overlooked truths, and her narrative reporting has earned a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, as well as honors from the Nieman Center for Journalism at Harvard University, the Education Writers Association and the Society for Professional Journalists. Claudia has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Believing that ideas and innovation can be important channels for building community, Claudia seeks projects that educate, fascinate and push boundaries. In 2017, she published the award-winning memoir, The Spider and the Fly (HarperCollins), which has been optioned for film and explores the delicate tension between a news subject and interviewer.
A native of New York City, Claudia graduated from Bennington College in 1988, with a degree in literature. She spent seven years writing for The New York Times, and has been proud to call Seattle home since 2003. Sought-after for her expertise on education, social issues and journalism ethics, Claudia is a frequent radio and television news guest.
John Rossman
Investor
John Rossman is an investor in Clyde Hill Publishing. A former Amazon executive, he is founder and managing partner of Rossman Partners and a former Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal (A&M), a global professional services firm. John and Greg are long-time collaborators in business and philanthropy, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
John is author of The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company (2014), The Amazon Way on IoT (2016) and Think Like Amazon (2019).
Frances McCue
Editor, Pulley Press
Frances McCue, a literary activist, arts instigator, poet and writer, serves as the Editor of Pulley Press. Other start-ups that McCue has instigated or implemented include her work as the co-founder and founding director of Richard Hugo House where McCue brought the organization, now the largest literary center in the west, from start-up to stability in its first decade.
She also instigated, with a group of undergraduates, the Poetry Brigade, a student-faculty-community collective to promote reading and writing poetry at the University of Washington and she was the co-writer, co-producer and instigator of Where the House Was, a feature-length poetry documentary about gentrification, loss and one old building in Seattle.
McCue is an award-winning poet and prose writer who has published four books of poetry and two of prose and she is currently a Teaching Professor in the English Department at the University of Washington. In 2018, she won the UW’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest honor for teaching at the University.
Brian DeSplinter
Executive Writer
Brian DeSplinter is Executive Writer at Clyde Hill. A veteran speechwriter, communications consultant, and co-author of an upcoming book on business leadership, for the past decade Brian has worked with some of the most recognized leaders in our society – from politics and business to higher education, technology, and entertainment – partnering with them in finding their voice, articulating their values and telling their stories. He served as Director of CEO & Executive Communications at United Airlines, as well as speechwriter to the mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, from 2011-2015.
His ghostwriting has appeared widely in publications that include The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and Time Magazine. With a career that began in the film and theatre industry, Brian’s approach is characterized by collaborative storytelling – and he is passionate about helping influential thought leaders to distill complicated messages into coherent, compelling narratives that will have lasting positive impact. Brian graduated from the University of Notre Dame.
Ella Shaw
Marketing Assistant
Ella Shaw earned her BFA from Emerson College in 2022. She is the Marketing assistant at Clyde Hill Publishing. Ella is a singer, dancer, actor and writer who is passionate about bringing stories to life and helping artists bring their work to the widest platform.
Tom Dowdell
Attorney
After earning his bachelor’s degree in public policy from the University of Pennsylvania, Tom worked for two members of the U.S. Congress. He graduated from The George Washington University Law School where he was a member of the George Washington Law Review. He went on to practice law for 35 years, including 22 years as a partner with Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. in Houston, Texas and Washington, D.C. In 2013, the firm became part of the global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. During his long career, Tom has represented health care organizations as well as media companies. Tom retired from the private practice of law at the end of 2021 and resides outside Lexington, Virginia with his wife, Lisa.
Gail DiRe
Independent Bookstore Liaison, Xetera Media Services
Gail is the independent bookstore liaison for Clyde Hill Publishing. Her many years working in the book industry has helped her build strong relationships with local independent bookstores, media producers, and event venues. For over 30 years, she has owned and operated Xetera Media Services.
Xetera is a Northwest-based media service company that provides public relations, consulting, media connections, logistics, events and schedule management. Through Xetera she works with national publishing houses and PR firms as the local representative and guide for their authors, politicians, and celebrities that are on book tours in Seattle. Gail also works as a local publicist on nonfiction books, for media connections and events.
Pulley Press Interns
Ricardo Ruiz
Founding Intern & Poet, Pulley Press
Ricardo Ruiz hails from Othello, Washington and his works often draw from his experience as a first-generation Mexican-American. Ricardo holds a Associates Degree in Business and Accounting from Big Bend Community College where he was recognized as Student of the year in both Business and Economics and English Composition. He also holds a Bachelors of Art in English: Creative Writing from the University of Washington and is an Army Veteran. He is passionate about elevating the marginalized voices from rural communities and takes pride in being a conduit for cultural connection. His own struggles straddling cultures provide insight to the difficulties of the Mexican migrant worker and their families.
Raquel Gordon
Founding Intern, Pulley Press
Raquel Gordon is a recent graduate of the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in English (Creative Writing) and Dance. She lives in Seattle and is fortunate to be able to contribute to a couple of local publishing projects. A soprano, choreographer, dancer, and writer, Raquel immerses herself in the arts and is passionate about collaborating on creative projects with awesome people.
Abigail Stark
Founding Intern & Editorial Assistant, Pulley Press
Abigail Stark is an undergraduate student at the University of Washington pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in English (Language and Literature) and International Studies. From Kalamazoo, Michigan, she is passionate about the connection between rural voices and literature. Pulley Press is her debut into the world of publishing.
Other members of the Pulley Press founding intern team include Katherine Ellis, Claire Meniktas, and Zoe Mertz.
