Leonard Riggio is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS), parent company of Barnes & Noble Bookstores, B. Dalton Booksellers, and Doubleday Book Shops. He is also Chairman of Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, MBS Textbook Exchange and Babbages, Etc., a national chain of retail software stores. Riggio opened his first book- store, SBX, in Greenwich Village in 1965.

He lectures widely, is a philanthropist, the recipient of numerous civic awards and holds an honorary doctorate from City University of New York.