Matt Montgomery

President and Chief Executive Officer eCampus.com

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Matt Montgomery is President and Chief Executive Officer of eCampus.com, the Lexington, Kentucky company that launched on 2 July 1999 and pioneered selling used textbooks online. The company calls him a founding partner, and he has been with it since its inception. He was among the group of investors who bought eCampus.com in 2001. He then steered it from a dot-com-era online bookstore into textbook rental in 2007 and, more recently, into running official online bookstores, access programs and campus stores for schools, colleges and universities. He came to the business from textbook publishing, where he had been a vice president at Thomson Learning.

Career Highlights

• President and CEO of eCampus.com, a founding partner who has been with the company since it launched in July 1999.
• One of a group of investors who purchased eCampus.com in 2001.
• Took the company into online textbook rental in 2007, among the first companies to offer it.
• Built eCampus.com’s institutional business: it now acts as official online bookstore and course-materials provider for hundreds of K-12 and higher education institutions.
• Previously a vice president at Thomson Learning, now Cengage Learning.

Professional Journey

Montgomery came to eCampus.com from the publishing side of the textbook business, having served as a vice president at Thomson Learning, the educational publisher now known as Cengage Learning. The company says he brings more than 30 years of experience in the publishing industry.

eCampus.com was one of the original dot-com companies. Its early backers included Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas and George F. Valassis, and it raised $91 million from 429 investors. The site was built in eight months and went live on 2 July 1999, Thomas’s birthday, as one of the first places to buy used textbooks online. Montgomery was part of the business from the start, and in 2001 he was one of a group of investors who bought the company.

Under his leadership the company describes an “adapt or die” philosophy, and the clearest example is rental. In 2007 eCampus.com became one of the first companies to rent textbooks online, a model that later became standard across the industry. The company went on to offer digital textbooks, a third-party marketplace and book buyback alongside new and used sales.

The larger shift has been toward institutions. eCampus.com now runs full-service online bookstores for schools, colleges and universities, operates campus stores, and manages inclusive-access and equitable-access programs that bundle course materials into tuition or fees. Its 2025 and 2026 partners include George Mason University, William & Mary, Drexel University, Rowan University, Bridgewater State University and the Massachusetts public colleges and universities. Montgomery is quoted as President and CEO throughout the company’s recent announcements. The company remains privately held and headquartered in Lexington, where it employed more than 350 people in 2024.

Education

No education record was found in any first-party or dated source reviewed.