Stephen Cole is the Managing Director of Ebooks Corporation. He has been involved in the book industry for most of his working life, and is a leading player in the ebook industry. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of Western Australia. Stephen founded eBooks.com in January 1997, the concept for the business growing out of his twin passions for books and the Internet as a medium for the dissemination of ideas. His background is in bookselling having, with his wife Trudy, founded The Lane Bookshop in 1980, which grew over fourteen years to become Western Australia's most successful independent bookstore.