About Steve

Some people stumble into their life's work. Steve Potash built his from the ground up, starting at a kitchen table in Cleveland Heights with a law degree, an early conviction about digital media, and a belief that the printed word deserved better than the formats constraining it. As the son of immigrants who built their life in America from very little, he learned early that ideas were worth pursuing and that hard work was the only reliable path forward. That spirit carried him from Ohio State, where he studied journalism, to Cleveland State University College of Law, through a legal career that included serving as Special Counsel to the Ohio Attorney General and sitting as an acting Municipal Court Judge.

In 1986, Steve and his wife Loree co-founded OverDrive in Cleveland with a simple but powerful question: what if books could be digital, searchable, and accessible to anyone? They built what would become the world's leading digital reading platform, now serving more than 83,000 libraries, schools, and institutions across 106 countries. Libby, OverDrive's flagship app, has been downloaded by hundreds of millions of readers worldwide.

In 2026, Steve transitioned from CEO to Chairman of the Board, a move that reflects his belief that great companies outlast their founders by design. As Chairman, he remains engaged in OverDrive's strategic future while turning more of his attention to writing, speaking, and advocating for the mission that has defined his career: that every person deserves access to books and information.

A pioneer in the digital book and media distribution industry, Steve was among the first to develop useful applications for electronic books in the 1980s. OverDrive developed products and services for authors and publishers that produced early commercial applications for digital books including on floppy disks, CD-ROM, offering print-to-digital conversion services.  The earliest electronic books produced by OverDrive were in partnership with leading law, accounting, and healthcare publishing partners.  In 2000, Steve launched OverDrive’s flagship digital content distribution hub, OverDrive Marketplace, now one of the largest B2B catalogs in the world for institutional buyers of eBooks and other digital media in over 100 languages.

Steve has been recognized by the industry with various awards. In 2011 he received the first Ambassador Award from the US publishing industry at BookExpo America and in 2016 he was honored by the UJA-Federation of New York Publishing Division. In 2017, Steve was honored as a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from Cleveland State University. In 2020, Harvard Business School Club of NE Ohio awarded Steve with the George S. Dively Entrepreneurship Award and in 2023, he received the Robert Motter Vendor Appreciation Award from the Oklahoma Library Association. 

Steve was a founding member of the Open eBook Forum (renamed International Digital Publishing Forum) and a contributing author for the industry standard eBook format EPUB specification. In addition, through his collaboration with federal and state agencies, Steve has worked extensively for improved digital media accessibility for the visually impaired. 

Prior to starting OverDrive, and while practicing law, Steve served as Special Counsel to the Ohio Attorney General, served as an acting Municipal Judge, and authored technology columns for the American Bar Association Journal. He was admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court in 2019. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The Ohio State University and earned his J.D. at the Cleveland State University College of Law. 

The Steve & Loree Potash Family Foundation has funded literacy programs in excess of $10 million dollars, including hundreds of grants through BelieveInReading.org.  In 2021, Steve and Loree gifted $7.5 million to establish the Steve and Loree Potash Women & Newborn Center at the University Hospital Ahuja Medical Center. In addition to the named center, Steve and Loree’s gift launched an innovative literacy program called Baby’s First Books, ensuring families go home with their first collection of baby books to be read to the newborn.  In 2025, Steve and Loree donated $100,000 to the Cleveland Kids’ Book Bank and a $500,000 Challenge Grant to benefit the ALA 150th Anniversary Campaign. 

Steve and Loree focus their philanthropic efforts on literacy, intellectual freedom, women and newborn health, and other community causes through the Steve & Loree Potash Family Foundation, including Believe in Reading.