Black Book has hired Laird Popkin as its chief technology officer and senior vice president, the company has announced.

Popkin steps into a newly created role and reports to Tom Cross, Black Book's president. The appointment is effective March 23.

Popkin will be responsible for all product development and IT operations for the entire group, which includes National Auto Research, Veretech Holdings, Inc., and Canadian Black Book.

Popkin joins Black Book from Kaplan, Inc., where he was chief enterprise architect. He has more than 25 years of executive and technology management experience at leading companies and has held CTO positions at Pando Networks, Warner Music Group, 3Path, Sotheby's Holdings, and News Corp's Internet Services.

"Laird is the ideal choice to help drive Black Book's IT and product initiatives as we continue to leverage technology capabilities and innovations and create breakthrough products and services for the automotive industry," said Cross. "Laird's technical expertise, passion for technology, and operational excellence will help us in our commitment to continually enhance our market-leading products to meet the needs of our customers."