Ponentes | 70th World News Media Congress, 25th World Editors Forum

70th World News Media Congress, 25th World Editors Forum

06 Jun 2018 hasta 08 Jun 2018
Estoril, Cascais
Portugal

World Editors Forum - Women in News Summit

Ponentes | 70th World News Media Congress, 25th World Editors Forum

Ponentes

They come from different region of the world, have very different backgrounds and are all making a difference in their respective fields. Discover our speakers for the 70th World News Media Conference.

Watch out for updates as we will be adding many more in the coming weeks!

 

Executive in residence, StartupLab, Norway

Since March 2019, Tina Stiegler is mentoring new tech companies in growth strategies and go-to-market at StartUp Lab in Oslo. Prior to that, she spent 17 years in Schibsted Media Group. Her last position was Head of Next Media. Tina started in Schibsted as a management trainee in 2002, and has since held positions as organizational director in Verdens Gang (VG), as well as different positions in Bergens Tidende and VG. Tina was COO/CFO in Schibsted Norway from 2012, and took on the role as project lead for the reorganization project in 2015 when she became part of the group management team of Schibsted Media Group. Tina holds a degree in economics and business administration (“siviløkonom”) from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)/Pontíficia Universidad Católica de Chile, as well as studies in literature and French from the University of Bergen/Université de Nice-Sofia Antipolis.

 

Chief Product and Customer Officer, PRISA News, Spain

Noemí Ramírez is Chief Digital Officer at PRISA News (El País, As, among others) where she leads the Product, Analytics and Audience Development areas, accordingly to the business' strategy, objectives and digital transformation process. Previously, She was Product Director at PRISA Innovation, chief editor at El Mundo and worked at Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the largest investigative journalism association in the US. She has a Master in Journalism from Missouri University, thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship. She is an habitual speaker at several digital media trends fora.

Author, CNBC Contributor, Institute for Advanced Study Fellow; former Editor in Chief, USA TODAY, USA

Joanne Lipman is one of the USA’s leading journalists, a CNBC contributor, and author of the No. 1 bestseller THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID: What Men and Women Need to Know About Working Together. She also is the first Peretsman Scully Distinguished Journalism Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where she is working with AI/machine learning scientists to look at how those new technologies are impacting journalism. She is the former Chief Content Officer of Gannett and Editor in Chief of its USA TODAY and USA TODAY NETWORK, encompassing more than 3,000 journalists at 110 newspapers including the Detroit Free Press, the Arizona Republic, the Des Moines Register and the Cincinnati Enquirer. Under her leadership, the NETWORK was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes and had an additional three Pulitzer finalists. She is a member of the World Editors Forum advisory board.

Ms. Lipman began her career at The Wall Street Journal, ultimately becoming Deputy Managing Editor -- the first woman to attain that post -- and supervising coverage that won three Pulitzer Prizes. She subsequently was founding Editor-in-Chief of Condé Nast Portfolio magazine and portfolio.com, which won Loeb and National Magazine Awards. Ms. Lipman is co-author of the New York Times Education bestseller "Strings Attached," which has also been published across Europe and Asia.

In addition to her on-air role with CNBC, Ms. Lipman has appeared as a television commentator on ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC, PBS, and MSNBC, among others. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Time, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, and Newsweek, and her journalism has been collected in multiple anthologies. A winner of the Matrix Award for women in communications, Lipman is a member of the World Editors Forum board and the Council on Foreign Relations, and the advisory boards of data.world, Breastcancer.org and the Yale School of Music. She was a member of the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy, as well as the boards of the Knights Orchestra, the Yale University Council, the Yale Daily News and the Yale Alumni magazine, of which she was chair. She has been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Awards and the Loeb Awards.

Editor-in-Chief, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany

Wolfgang Krach, 54, is currently Editor-in-Chief of “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the largest selling national quality newspaper in Germany, based in Munich. Wolfgang studied philosophy, worked for several news agencies (AP, Reuters, dpa) and served as Munich correspondent for the regional daily “Donaukurier”. From 1993 to 1997, he was a political reporter at STERN magazine in Hamburg. Following this post, Mr. Krach was deputy bureau chief in Berlin of the news magazine DER SPIEGEL, after which he headed the national desk at DER SPIEGEL based in Hamburg. In 2003, he came to “Süddeutsche Zeitung” to serve as the paper's managing editor. In 2007, he was appointed to the role deputy editor-in-chief, since 2015 he has been editor-in-chief. As Editor-in-Chief he oversaw “Süddeutsche Zeitungs” investigation first of the Panama Papers – a cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting 2017, then the investigation of the Paradise Papers – also in cooperation with the ICIJ – that won a George Polk Award in 2018.

 

Executive Vice President, COO, JP/Politikens Hus, Denmark

Dorthe Bjerregaard-Knudsen is COO at JP/Politikens Hus, one of Denmark's leading media companies in printed and digital publications. JP/Politikens Hus publishes three of Denmark’s leading national news brands; Ekstra Bladet, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken. The group’s activities also include local newspapers in Denmark and Sweden, a publishing house, operation and development of a range of digital activities and news services as well as other business areas.

 

Prior to joining JP/Politikens Hus Dorthe Bjerregaard-Knudsen was Managing Director at OMD Denmark. Before that, Dorthe held a number different positions at Omnicom Media Group; amongst others she was Managing Director of Insight Group.

 

Dorthe holds a master’s degree in Economics & Business Administration Economic Marketing from Copenhagen Business School.

CEO, South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd

Gary Liu is CEO of South China Morning Post, a leading English-language media company covering China and Asia. Founded in 1903, SCMP is headquartered in Hong Kong and is the city’s newspaper of record. Along with its flagship news products, SCMP also publishes Hong Kong’s premier lifestyle and fashion magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Elle Men, Esquire and Cosmopolitan. Prior to joining SCMP in January 2017, Gary was CEO of Digg, spearheading the New York startup’s transformation from aggregator to a data-driven news platform. Previously, Gary was Head of Spotify Labs, where he led emerging technologies and business strategies for Spotify’s global markets, after joining as Global Director of Ad Product Strategy. Gary has also worked at AOL and Google.

Born in the United States, Gary grew up in Taiwan and New Zealand, before returning to the American Northeast where he lived and worked for 20 years. He currently lives in Hong Kong with his wife Katrina, a pediatric dentist. Gary is an Economics graduate from Harvard University.

Chief Design Officer, Axios, USA

Alexis Lloyd is an award-winning creative director, user experience designer, and researcher whose work focuses on exploring the newly available possibilities of emerging technologies. She designs and builds compelling user experiences that demonstrate innovative ways of engaging with information and with the world around us, currently as the Chief Design Officer at Axios and prior to that as the Creative Director of The New York Times R&D Lab. Alexis is also an accomplished writer and public speaker who can convene thoughtful conversations amongst diverse groups about the future of design, technology, and user experience.

 

CEO, Local Media Association, USA

Nancy Lane is the dynamic leader of the Local Media Association, an organisation that supports nearly 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, digital sites, radio stations and R&D partners in North America. LMA’s mission is to reinvent business models for news.  

The association announced the creation of Accelerate Local last year and launched six different labs including the GNI Subs Lab, The Branded Content Project and the Digital Transformation Lab for Publishers of Color. In 2020, four new projects have been launched: COVID-19 local news fund (has raised $1.4 million for over 200 publishers), Oklahoma Media Center, a news collaborative in Chicago and The Fund for Local Journalism.

Lane has served as CEO since October 2000 and prior to that she held publisher and senior level positions with daily and weekly newspapers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Missouri. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Villanova University and also serves as the immediate past president on the VU Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Vice President Marketing, The Washington Post, USA

Miki King is Vice President Marketing at The Washington Post. Previously she was Vice President Operations and Digital Marketing, in charge of digital subscription and new product marketing, finance enterprise systems and facilities operations and security. Since joining The Washington Post in early 2016, King has led the team to drive digital subscription growth by more than 200%, focusing on client retention and engagement as well as acquisition. With over 15 years of experience in building and leading high performing growth teams, her expertise is in managing critical client relationships, fostering stakeholder buy-in and innovating functional operations. Prior to joining The Washington Post, King was Executive Vice President, Operations at Politico. King holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a JD from George Mason University School of Law and was admitted to the Virginia State Bar in 2007. She is on the Board of Directors of the International Women’s Media Foundation, which is dedicated to strengthening the role of women journalists worldwide.

Founder and CEO, Chicas Poderosas, Portugal

Mariana Santos founded Chicas Poderosas, a non-profit organization that aims to bring more women into technology, started in Latin America, back in 2013. Today she runs it full time with her co-director Vicki Hammarstedt and a board of directors, experts in the different areas of journalism, entrepreneurship, business, innovation and design thinking. Former infographics editor at Olympic Committee Rio 2016, former director of Interactive and animation at Fusion Media. Knight Innovation Chair at Florida International University in 2015-16. JSK Knight fellow at Stanford 2015 and Knight International Journalism Fellow 2013-14 working all across Latin America in major newsrooms and with independent journalists. Mariana Santos is a visual storyteller, who did groundbreaking work as a member of the interactive team at The Guardian in London. A trained animator, she pioneered the newsroom’s use of motion graphics to make data stories more compelling. She leads design thinking workshops to increase multidisciplinary approach to storytelling, and she is a leader in community transformation via digital training.

 

Chief Executive Officer, Guardian Media Group, United Kingdom

David Pemsel was appointed CEO, Guardian Media Group (GMG) in July 2015 with responsibility for leading GMG’s commercial and financial business strategy.

In addition he is Chairman of GMG Ventures, a $50m fund making early stage investments in innovative businesses in the media technology sector. He is also a member of The Scott Trust, the ultimate owner of The Guardian.  

David joined Guardian News & Media (GNM) in 2011 and was appointed chief commercial officer in 2012. A year later he took on increased accountability for the GNM business in the newly-created role of deputy chief executive, with responsibility for leading commercial operations in the UK, the US and Australia, and integrating them as one global organisation.

Prior to joining GNM, David worked in many senior roles within the media industry, including launching Shine Entertainment in 2000, before becoming Group Marketing Director of ITV plc in 2005. 

David is a non-executive director of The British Fashion Council, a voting member of BAFTA and a Council member of the Marketing Group of Great Britain. 

Editor in Chief, NewsMavens, Poland

Zuzanna Ziomecka is an American-educated, Polish-based media maker professionally involved in print, television and internet projects. She works for Poland's largest liberal daily - Gazeta Wyborcza - where she is responsible for digital innovations for their women's brand "Wysokie Obcasy" and is Editor-in-Chief of NewsMavens.com - a news round-up curated exclusively by women from European news organisations. The project is funded by Google DNI and Gazeta Wyborcza and aims to discover whether gender has an impact on news narrative. She was awarded editor of the year for founding and editing the first Polish lifestyle magazine for parents in 2008. She was also one of the few women to ever act as chief editor for a weekly magazine (Przekrój) in Poland. 

Chief Data Officer, The Financial Times Group, UK

As Chief Data Officer, Tom Betts oversees the strategic use of customer data and research across the organisation, helps identify growth opportunities, and experiments and tests new ideas with the aim of building audiences and revenues. Since joining the FT in 2009, Betts and his team have spearheaded the use of data to improve business performance, allowing the FT to deliver better services and tools for both readers and advertisers. Betts is part of The Financial Times Group leadership team.  

Executive Director, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), Jordan

Rana Sabbagh is executive director at Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) – the region’s leading media support network spreading the culture of “accountability journalism” in nine Arab states since 2005.

She has dedicated the last 33 years of her career as journalist, columnist and media trainer to promote free speech, independent media, “accountability journalism” and human rights.

As former chief editor of the Jordan Times (1999-Jan 2002), she became the first Arab female in the history of the Levant to run a daily political newspaper. She is a former correspondent for Reuters International News Agency and The Times (London) and helped establish Jordan’s latest independent newspaper, Al-Ghad.

President, Groupe Le Monde, France

Louis Dreyfus is the President and Publisher of the French Groupe Le Monde. He is also President of Huffington Post France and leads the board of directors of weekly magazines Télérama and Courrier International. He is a board member of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Vice-President of the supervisory board of news publisher Groupe Nouvel Observateur.

Dreyfus graduated from the HEC Business School and London School of Economics (LSE). He held executive positions at Hachette Filipacchi Médias (HFM) in the U.S. and France, and at the French daily newspaper Libération.

News Head, Times Internet, India

Now she is News Head at Times Internet, After 15+ years in digital media and commerce - product development that changes consumer behaviour, and consumer technology are deep interests. Have spent the last few years obsessing about mobile experiences and thinking more about monetization of digital products — ads, daily transactions and subscription. Happy to help consumer media startups think through the stages of product-market fit, executing for scale and business metrics 

Durga Raghunath is responsible for managing the business and editorial operations of all digital brands of India’s Express Group. She is the founder-CEO of Firstpost, India's first exclusively digital newsroom and was CEO of Network 18 digital, overseeing Moneycontrol, IBNLive, News18, Firstpost, Burrp!, In.com and regional media products.

Raghunath started out in book publishing in India and with HarperCollins in New York. She co-founded and was CEO of Juggernaut Books, a digital-first publishing startup, focused on creating new genres of ebooks and a writing platform for the Indian public on their smartphones.

She is a Facebook #SheleadsTech Mentor and has an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and a Publishing Degree from Columbia University in New York City. 

VP Commercial Strategy, Technology and R&D, The Washington Post, USA

Jarrod Dicker is an entrepreneurial technology and media executive. He oversees the commercial strategy, operations, technology and R&D at the Washington Post. Until January 2019, Dicker was Chief Executive Officer of Po.et, a platform for a new decentralized media economy.

Prior to Po.et, Dicker served as innovation chief at the Washington Post and founded RED, the Post's research experimentation and development team. There he oversaw the companies technology, product, operations and strategy across the entire business.

Before the Washington Post, Dicker lead strategy, product and technology teams at RebelMouse, Time Inc. and the Huffington Post. He also sits on the Board of Advisors for Rutgers University School of Innovation and Mogul Inc., a technology platform that enables women worldwide to share ideas and access content based on personal interests.

Dicker's writing and work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, AdAge, AdWeek, Digiday, Axios, AdExchanger, Poynter and more.

Executive Vice-President of Product & Operations (TV, Print, Digital, Radio), RBS Group, Brazil

Andiara Petterle is an entrepreneur and executive of the digital market since 1998. Currently, she is senior vice-president of Product Development and Operations at Grupo RBS. Previously she was vice president Newspapers and Digital Media for the same group. Before joining RBS, Petterle was the Executive Director of Strategy and Business Development at e.Bricks, RBS’s investment company focused on the digital industry. At e.Bricks, she acted as an advisor to several technology, e-commerce and media companies. She founded Grupo Bolsa de Mulher, one of the largest women's digital media companies in Latin America, and was CEO of Predicta and other digital companies in the country. Petterle has a bachelor and a master’s degree in Social Communications from PUC-RJ, was an invited researcher at Brown University, and has participated in business training programs at Harvard Business School and Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Dean of Media and Communications, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

David Boardman is Dean of the School of Media and Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia, Chair of the Board of Solutions Journalism Network; Chair of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and Chair of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

He is a former Executive Editor and Senior Vice President of The Seattle Times, the largest news organisation in the Pacific Northwest. Under his leadership, The Times won four Pulitzer Prizes. Boardman has been the recipient of numerous other major national awards.

He is a former president of the American Society of News Editors; a past chair of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication; a past chair of the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and a Poynter Ethics Fellow.

Coach, Table Stakes Europe / Journalism lecturer, UK

Alexandra Borchardt a senior journalist, keynote speaker, media consultant and Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. As a Director of Leadership Programmes at the Institute until July 2019 she developed and led on the seminar series “Oxford Perspectives”, targeting senior journalists, editors and media managers. Prior to this, she was managing editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Germany’s leading quality daily.

Alexandra’s main focus is digital transformation and how it impacts the media, democracy, the workplace and human behaviour. She teaches “Leadership and Strategy in the 21st Century” at TU Munich, gives lectures and talks on digitisation and the media and publishes opinion pieces with Project SyndicateNewsMavens and theEuropean Journalism Observatory. She is the author of Mensch 4.0 – Frei bleiben in einer digitalen Welt (Freedom in a digital world), Guetersloher Verlagshaus (Random House), 2018. She serves as vice chair of the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Quality Journalism in the Digital Age.

At SZ she held several functions in the politics and business sections. She was also founding editor of Süddeutsche’s ‘Plan W’, an award winning quarterly magazine for women and business. In her reporting she has focused on internet and democracy and the future of work. In 2015 she published Das Internet zwischen Diktatur und Anarchie: Zehn Thesen zur Demokratisierung der digitalen Welt (The Internet between Dictatorship and Anarchy: Ten Assertions about Democracy in the Digital World), Süddeutsche Zeitung Edition Streitschrift. Before joining SZ she worked for Financial Times Deutschland and Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Tulane University, New Orleans (1994), and in 2013 completed a Programme for Management Development at IESE Business School, Barcelona.

Founder and CEO, Constructive Institute, Denmark

Ulrik Haagerup, Founder & CEO of Constructive Institute is a  former Executive Director of News at the Danish Public Broadcasting Corporation. 

He is an award-winning journalist and international public speaker on leadership and strategy and the author of the books A Good Idea – Did You Get It? (2004) and Constructive News: A Confrontation with the Negative Worldview of the Press (2012, 2014 and 2017). 

In 2008, he was a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Journalism. 

From 1994 to 2002 he was editor-in-chief at Danish broadsheet Jyllands-Posten. From 2002 to 2007 he headed the first full-scale multimedia newsroom at NORDJYSKE. 

He is Knight of Dannebrog and was awarded the Danish Pulitzer for investigative reporting The Cavling Prize 1990.  

Director of Audio, The Washington Post, USA

Jessica Stahl is the director of audio at The Washington Post, where she oversees a team developing popular podcasts like “Can He Do That?” and “Constitutional,” and experimenting in audio storytelling with programs like “Letters From War” and “Retropolis.” The Washington Post was also one of the first news organisations to produce audio specifically for smart speakers with “The Daily 202’s Big Idea,” and continues to pioneer around audio programming, as well as delivery and monetization strategies.   

Jessica previously was The Post’s deputy editor for audience, focusing on community-building and digital-first storytelling, as well as the implementation of smart digital strategy. Prior to joining The Post, she was the social media editor at the Voice of America. Jessica has an MA from Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and an AB from Princeton University.

Co-Founder and VP of Business Development, WikiTribune, UK

Orit Kopel is the Co-Founder & VP of Business Development of WikiTribune, an inventive Wiki-based news platform which brings together a community of volunteers with hired professional journalists in an effort to create a collaborative news space. With a background as a qualified Human Rights Lawyer, Kopel is CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation for Freedom of Expression, advocating for bloggers and social media users who are persecuted for speaking out online. She previously acted as Jimmy Wales’ Special Adviser for Google’s Expert Advisory Council on the ‘Right To Be Forgotten’, defending Internet freedom.

 

Founder, Dream Local Digital, USA

Shannon Kinney is a seasoned startup Founder and Executive with over 25 years of experience. With deep experience in sales, marketing, online product development and leadership, this is her third nationally-scaled digital marketing solution company. She founded Dream Local Digital in 2009 “to bring the power of online marketing to small and medium sized businesses”, and also to master the craft of how to make SMBs successful on social media. She has a wide and highly engaged network of leaders in media, technology, and startups worldwide, and has developed Dream Local Digital to be a widely recognized brand as best of breed in social media fulfillment.

Media researcher and consultant

Greg Piechota is an academic researcher, a media consultant and a writer. As a researcher and an ex-fellow at Harvard and Oxford universities, he studies technology-enabled disruption patterns across industries, with a focus on business model innovation in news media. Mr Piechota is a former media executive with 20+ years of industry experience. He began his career at Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza in 1996 as a reporter in one of the smallest local offices rising to a news editor and a vice-president of Agora Foundation. The book, Unlocking the Customer Value Chain, which he wrote together with Professor Thales Teixeira of Harvard Business School was released in 2019 by Currency, a brand of Penguin Random House. Mr Piechota lives in Oxford, England.

Expert Advisor, WAN-IFRA & Senior Advisor, Schibsted, Sweden

Beginning in the mid-90s, Kalle was one of the key designers of the strategy and success of Aftonbladet’s digital business development. The strategy and its implementation have deeply influenced the Schibsted corporate strategy.
Driving Aftonbladet to be one of the first digital news media in the world to ask users to pay for digital content, Kalle was also instrumental in developing its mobile strategy. He has over 35 years in media and is Senior Advisor to Schibsted Sweden as well as WAN-IFRA. Kalle is also a Board Member of Svenska Dagbladet.

Executive Director of Aspen Digital, The Aspen Institute, USA

Vivian Schiller joined the Aspen Institute in January 2020 as Executive Director of Aspen Digital, which empowers policymakers, civic organizations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world.

A longtime executive at the intersection of journalism, media and technology, Schiller has held executive roles at some of the most respected media organizations in the world. Those include, Global Chair of News at Twitter where she led the company’s strategy for news and partnership with journalism organizations and the news publishing ecosystem. Schiller previously served as Senior VP & Chief Digital Officer for NBC News where she had strategic and operational oversight of the networks‘ presence on the web, mobile, devices, and social media.

Prior to NBC, Schiller served as President and CEO of NPR, leading all of NPR's worldwide media operations. She was Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications. Earlier in her career, Schiller was the head of CNN Productions, where she led CNN's long-form programming efforts. Documentaries and series produced under her auspices earned multiple honors, including three Peabody Awards, four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, and dozens of Emmys. 

Editor in chief, O Globo, Brazil

Graduated in journalism from UFF and postgraduate in Public Policy by Iuperj, he worked as a reporter for O GLOBO and Folha de S.Paulo, in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. He won the Embratel, Rey de España and two Esso Prizes for Journalism in the main category, among others. In Folha de São Paulo, he worked as Deputy Editor of Politics, and Editor of the section "Cotidiano" and Editor od the First Page. At GLOBO, he served as Editor of Politics and Executive Editor until he was promoted to Editor-in-chief.

Managing Director, Print Power Europe, Brussels, Belgium

Ulbe Jelluma is a seasoned marketing and advertising professional. He is heading Print Power Europe, the pan-European, industry-wide initiative promoting print advertising.

Print Power Europe, the leading voice for print media campaigning, sponsored by the European paper industry, organises Round Tables with leading brands and agencies; providing facts, expert interviews and cases on its website printpower.eu and setting-up face-to-face meetings with agencies and brands discussing the role of print advertising in the media mix.

Ulbe worked for the international advertising agencies Ogilvy, Hakuhodo/TBWA and BBDO for international clients such as Canon Europe, Sappi Europe, Südzucker, Unilever, Philips and American Express.

He's committed to the effectiveness of advertising and was a member of the founding committee and winner of the award that recognise effective advertising campaigns: the Effie awards. He was also part of the team that relaunched the Euro-Effies. He is a past Board member of the Belgian Marketing Association. Ulbe is Dutch but has spent more years in Belgium than in his home country.

He’s a regular speaker at industry events, including WAN-IFRA Annual Conference, INMA Global News Conference, FIPP Global Annual event, Distripress Congress, and various Print Power member events,….

Founder, VersPers, The Netherlands

Geesje van Haren established Verspers.nl in 2005. VersPers is a training and publication platform for investigative journalists, with a large network of publication partners and extensive experience in training creative investigative journalism skills. Geesje van Haren initiated and produced books, video-productions, journalistic events and exchange programs. In addition, she is the chief editor at Small Stream Media. As part of this cross-local platform, she travelled to OESO-DAC countries like Bosnia Herzegovina, Malaysia, South Africa, The Philippines and other countries, where she trained young talents how to move around to find cross-local stories.

Director of Team Development and Intrapreneurship, McClatchy, USA

Jeremy Gockel leads McClatchy’s multi-disciplinary innovation team and spearheads the coordination and delivery of the Design Thinking boot camps and Ignite accelerator program. These internal programs provide employees at all levels of the organization a meaningful hands-on experience with the design thinking process and related methodologies. He also advises fledgling entrepreneurial teams as part of McClatchy’s external investment in Matter VC, a twenty week bi-costal accelerator designed to the shape the future of media by building a more informed, connected, and empowered society. While the constituents vary across the three programs, the core mission of instilling creative confidence in insight driven change and innovation remain universal.

Executive Vice President, Amedia AS, Norway

Pål Nedregotten is Executive Vice President in charge of Product, Editorial and Subscriptions development, including Tech & Data at Amedia, which is with its 79 newspapers Norway’s largest local media publisher. He’s previously held various leading positions at the company at the crossroads between technology, product development and journalism.   At Amedia, he has since 2013 been central in developing and rolling out the company’s centralised login solution, digital subscription strategy and data strategy.    A veteran in the Norwegian online journalism field, he’s been working in the intersection between online development and journalism since 1994.  He was instrumental in spearheading some of the earliest examples of Norwegian online publications, experimenting with, among other things, live online chats/interviews between editors, panellists and interviewees as early as 1996 - as well as working closely with the editorial interfaces of home-grown publishing systems since 1997.   

Managing Director & Publishing Director, Le Parisien - Aujourd’hui en France (Today in France)

Sophie Gourmelen is Managing Director and Publishing Director of newsbrand Le Parisien - Aujourd’hui en France (Today in France), a division of LVMH Group.

She is a former Head of Sales and Circulation, Digital Marketing and Communication at Groupe Les Echos (business news), where she contributed to the digital transformation of the business and developed its digital subscriptions.

Prior to Groupe Les Echos, she was Marketing Director at Prisma Media (the magazine’s subsidiary of Grüner and Jahr in France), contributing to the active development of digital sales and the implementation of their CRM strategy. She also previously worked for IMP direct marketing for 15 years as the senior manager for the south of Europe.

President, International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), USA

Joyce Barnathan is president of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a non-profit dedicated to advancing quality journalism worldwide. She helps develop and oversee high-impact programs that combine the best professional practices with new technologies.

Previously, Barnathan served as the executive editor of BusinessWeek. Barnathan also completed a seven-year assignment as Asia regional editor and Hong Kong bureau manager for BusinessWeek. She came to BusinessWeek from Newsweek, where she served as State Department correspondent, Moscow Bureau Chief and Special Projects Correspondent covering presidential elections.

Founder, #HashtagOurStories, South Africa

Yusuf Omar is a multi-award winning journalist and Co-founder of Hashtag Our Stories, a TEDx speaker, former CNN Senior Social Media Reporter on Snapchat and former Mobile Editor at the Hindustan Times in India where he empowered 750 journalists to tell stories with the phones. He has been a foreign correspondent with just his phone since 2010 and covered the Syrian civil war. At Hashtag Our Stories, he’s empowering mobile video storytelling communities around the world, creating shows in every language.

CEO and Publisher, RED/ACCIÓN, Argentina

Chani Guyot is a journalist, designer and the CEO and Publisher of RED/ACCIÓN, an Argentinian news startup. He is the founder of Next Idea Lab and the former Editor-in-Chief of Argentina's La Nación. He relinquished this role in 2017 to feed his entrepreneurial and innovative spirit with the startup of Next Idea Lab. Guyot began his career at La Nación's Sunday magazine in 1996, working as journalist and designer. He was appointed Design Director and in 2009, the company's first Innovation Director. He led the newspaper's modernisation process and move into television. Guyot studied Journalism at the University of Buenos Aires and Social Communication at Austral University, where he taught for 10 years. He holds a Media MBA from Navarra University in Spain and is a founding member of FOPEA (Argentine Journalism Forum) and the Society for News Design, SND.

CEO and Founder of García Media, USA

Dr Mario Garcia is CEO and Founder of Garcia Media, a global consulting firm. 

He is also the Senior Adviser for News Design/Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, which he joined in 2013 as the Hearst Digital Media Professor in Residence.

He is known worldwide as one of the premiere media designers, having completed over  700 projects in 120 countries, including TheThe Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Paris Match (France) , South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), New Straits Times (Malaysia),  Aftenposten (Norway), The Philadelphia Inquirer, Die Zeit and Handelsblatt (Germany), all the McClatchy newspapers in the US, eight Postmedia newspapers in Canada, Goteborgs Posten( Sweden), Il Secolo XIX (Italy), The Citizen (South Africa). His current projects include Tagesspiegel (Berlin), Kurier (Vienna) and NOZ Digital group (Hamburg).

Currently, Dr. Garcia devotes most of his consulting and workshops to help organizations with transformation to a mobile-first approach, including training for how to write/edit/design for the smallest platform - that of the smartphone - where a large percentage of users get their information.

His mobile storytelling digital book, The Story, was published in late 2019 in a trilogy covering Transformation, Storytelling and Design.

Mario founded the Graphics & Design program at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, where he serves as a member of the Poynter Foundation. He has been involved with the Institute's EyeTrack studies since the 1980s, including the most recent EyeTrack for the Tablet in 2012.

His academic career includes full professor at both Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and the University of South Florida's Department of Mass Communications. He is the author of 13 books, including his first digital publication, Storytelling in the Age of the iPad.

Mario has received over 300 SND Awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award. People Magazine selected Mario among the 100 Most Influential Hispanics. The University of Missouri awarded Mario its Medal of Honor in Journalism.

Data Privacy Innovator and Lawyer, Germany

Jana Moser is an innovation and privacy expert. She gives advice regarding data, innovation and regulation. As attorney she also answers questions concerning data protection and privacy. Previously, she was with Axel Springer SE as Head of Data Innovation, where she lead a group-wide data strategy project with focus on business and strategy.

From 2007 Jana Moser worked as a so called knowledge architect at knowledgeTool International GmbH in Berlin before she was legal counsel and privacy officer at studiVZ, a former popular German social network. From 2011 she worked as inhouse legal counsel at Axel Springer SE for more than 2 years and investment manager for 1,5 years. As legal counsel she gave advice in particular concerning IT law, data protection and various online web and mobile services. Aside from that, she supported a digital product portfolio with special consideration of data protection laws as well as new digital innovations and ideas like bitcoin and blockchain.

From 2008-2010 Jana Moser wrote her doctorate thesis about “Browser games and client-based online games – The contractual relationship between provider and user” at European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder).

Since September 2017 she supports Spirit Legal LLC as of-counsel.

 

Editor-in-chief, Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil

Sergio Davila is Executive Editor of Folha de S. Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest newspapers. He has held the position since 2010. Previously he was the paper’s foreign correspondent and covered the 2000 U.S. elections, Ground Zero on Sept. 11, and the war in Iraq, for which he was given the Esso Prize, an important Brazilian journalism award. He has written a book about his time in Iraq, called “Baghdad Diary: The War in Iraq Seen from Under the Bombs.” Davila was born in São Paulo, Brazil and attended Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communication. His first journalism position was with Editora Abril in 1988, where he was a writer, editor and reporter. He is a Knight fellow.

Editor in Chief, Myitkyina News, Myanmar

Seng Mai Maran is an award-winning journalist/photographer and editor-in-chief of Myitkyina News
Journal in Kachin state in Myanmar. In 2014 the 28-year- old co-founded the paper, the only regional
independent newspaper in the state. She has gained wide recognition for her work addressing
women issues in conflict areas, such as drug abuse, discrimination and violence.  In February, she
won the prestigious first prize at the Yangon Photo Festival for her photo essay about female
soldiers fighting for the Kachin Independent Army. Seng Mai has background form BBC Burmese
Radio and various newspapers in Myanmar. She has a college-diploma in computer science.

Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, UNESCO, Paris, France

Guy has many years of experience in the African media and headed the School of Journalism & Media Studies at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa and was recently appointed Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development at UNESCO.

In the past, he has worked in both press and television and had a long-running column on the The Mail & Guardian website. He holds a doctorate from Rhodes University and was the deputy chair of the South African National Editor’s Forum.

President, World Editors Forum, USA

David was Chief Executive Officer of TheStreet, Inc., a New York-based financial news and information company, from mid-2016 until February, 2019. TheStreet was comprised of five businesses based in the U.S., the UK and India, with more than 600 employees, and including its flagship website, TheStreet.com. Most of the businesses were sold in late 2018 and David left to devote his energies to fighting for journalism through WEF.

Before joining TheStreet as CEO in 2016, David was Editor-in-Chief of USA Today, responsible for news coverage on America’s largest newspaper and fifth-largest digital news portfolio. David directed more than 400 journalists and worked with another 3,000 tied to 100 newspapers owned by USA Today parent company Gannett Inc.

 David joined USA Today in mid-2012 from MarketWatch, where he was also Editor-in-Chief. David ran MarketWatch through eight years of ownership by Dow Jones Co. and subsequently, News Corp., and four years before that as a public company which owned the website CBS MarketWatch. Dave also wrote a weekly column for MarketWatch, and was twice honored by the Society of American Editors and Writers for his commentary.

Before joining MarketWatch, Dave spent five years working for Bloomberg, almost all of it in London, where he ran a team that covered the financial services industry throughout Europe. Before Bloomberg, he spent six years as a reporter and columnist for The Boston Herald. He’s a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and currently splits his time between New York City and Corte Madera, Ca.

David Callaway is president of the World Editor’s Forum, a unit of WAN-IFRA, and a board member for the International Center for Journalists.

News Director, NRK (Norwegian public service broadcaster), Norway

Helje Solberg is News Director of NRK, the Norwegian public service broadcaster. Prior to joining NRK, she was CEO/Editor of VGTV and Executive Managing Editor for VG, the largest Norwegian media house on paper and internet combined. Helje is chair of Faktisk.no, Norway's collaborative fact-checking initiative. She is on the advisory board of the World Editors Forum, is the head of the organising committee of Schibsted Journalism Awards and is on the Board of MBL (Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association). She is a member of the Oslo Editor Association and is a member of SKUP’s Advisory Committee. She has spent a year at Phillips Academy, Andover, has studied Russian, social anthropology and politics. Before becoming editor of VGTV she served as Executive Managing Editor for VG, the largest Norwegian daily. Solberg has worked for a number of Norwegian newspapers. She has experience across all platforms in VG, where she started working as a political reporter in 1994. The following year she received the SKUP Award for Investigative Journalism for the so-called “AUF Scandal” (which led to the imprisonment of former treasures and leaders of the Worker’s Youth League for membership fraud).

Creator and Presenter, Outside Source, BBC, UK

 

Ros Atkins is the creator and presenter of Outside Source on BBC World News and, in the UK, on the BBC News Channel. He’s been a lead anchor on TV and radio for BBC News for many years covering Brexit, the recent German and Dutch elections, the death of Nelson Mandela and many many other stories. Ros is also the founder of the 50:50 Project which has become the largest gender-balancing initiative that’s ever happened at the BBC and is driving an increase in women contributors across many BBC programmes.

Editor and Project Leader, Kruschel, VRM, Germany

Eva Fauth, is an editor at the German regional publishing group VRM. Since 2012 she has been project leader of the children's newspaper, Kruschel.

Group Editor-in-Chief, Independent News and Media (INM), Ireland

Stephen Rae is Group Editor-in-Chief of Independent News and Media (INM), Ireland’s largest media group. INM is the market leader in online news and in the daily, Sunday and regional newspaper sectors.

Stephen has led the group’s online transition, building a seven-day Platform Neutral newsroom, making Independent.ie the largest and fastest growing news source in Ireland. He designed the central editorial hub which produces journalism for all of the group’s news, sport and entertainment platforms – both online and print. Previously, Stephen was editor of the Irish Independent newspaper and before that edited the Evening Herald. Stephen is a qualified barrister-at-law and criminologist.

‎Head of Data and Privacy, Schibsted Media Group, Sweden

When Atelach Alemu Argaw arrived in Schibsted, in early 2016, she started from scratch, building a team working with natural languages processing (NLP) and image recognition. Now they’re part of realizing Schibsted as a tech-based company. Her team builds state-of-the-art models and services, using data from users, and makes them available within Schibsted. NLP is an AI-based technology aiming to get computers to understand how humans speak, or write. Atelach’s team has built a model for labeling the intent of a message. This means that you can understand when buyers at a marketplace are interested in an item that already has been sold, and assist the seller in answering them. When it comes to image processing the team has, for instance, made it possible to show similar items to buyers. 

Atelach holds a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Gothenburgh and she has collaborated extensively at the Laboratory for Data Mining and Decision Analysis (DMDA) part of the Department of Computer and System Sciences at Stockholm University

VP Public Affairs, Mars Incorporated, USA

Matthias Berninger is the Vice-President Public Affairs at Mars, Incorporated and Deputy President for the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). After 13 years in Politics, representing the Green Party of his home state Hessen, Matthias Berninger retired in 2007 from his seat in the German Federal Parliament and joined Mars Europe as their Director Corporate Health and Nutrition for Europe and the CIS. In April 2008, he moved into the role of Global Head of Public Policy for Mars Incorporated. He joined the Global Chocolate Management Team of Mars Incorporated in 2009. In addition to his corporate responsibilities, he supports Mars Chocolate in communication and strategy development. In September 2009, Matthias was promoted to Corporate Staff Officer Public Affairs with responsibilities for the Central Public Policy and Programs team and the Public Affairs teams in Washington DC, Brussels, Moscow, Asia, Latin America, Africa with the Middle East reporting into him. He also leads the global trade team within Mars, Incorporated. 

CEO, Mediahuis, Belgium

As a media professional, Gert Ysebaert (54), has spent his entire life working in the media industry, combining his passion with a professional career. After obtaining his master’s degree in Communication and completing it with an Executive MBA, Gert held various management positions, mainly within the Corelio publishing group. He was publisher of De Standaard, Belgium’s largest quality newspaper, and Het Nieuwsblad, the second largest popular newspaper in Belgium.

When Corelio and Concentra joined forces in 2013 to form the new company Mediahuis, Gert Ysebaert was appointed CEO.  Over the past years he has led the Mediahuis organization on its path to further digital growth of its services and brands. Under his leadership and with the acquisition of NRC Media and Telegraaf Media Groep, Mediahuis evolved into a leading Belgian-Dutch multimedia company with more than 3.200 employees, an annual turnover of 800 MIO EUR and a daily sale of 1.4 million newspapers in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Co-Founder & CEO, Quintillion Media, India

Ritu Kapur is the co-founder and CEO of The Quint and board member, World Editors Forum. She is also a Board Member at Oxford University’s prestigious Reuters Institute Of Journalism and the World Editor's Forum. She used to head Programming at History Channel, was Features Editor at CNN IBN, where she launched the popular CJ (Citizen Journalist) Show, among others. Kapur has been recognized by Outlook Business as "Woman of Worth 2017 - The Newsmaker".

Under her leadership, The Quint has grown by nearly 250% Year on Year in terms of both Unique Users and Pageviews, and seen a 100%+ growth in revenue, and pulled in some of the biggest clients in the industry. She has also driven the redesign of The Quint's website, founded the proprietary interactive microsite format "Quint Lab", and launched the health content platform "Quint Fit".

Along with being an accomplished leader, she has spearheaded many initiatives and campaigns tackling social issues. Some of her most successful campaigns are Register To Vote and Power Of 49, which championed a manifesto for women, who comprise 49 per cent of the population. Another significant initiative was The Quint's partnership with BBC, which led to the birth of #SwachhDigital India, a campaign against fake news.

 

Ritu Kapur has also strived to provide multiple platforms for free speech such as Talking Stalking, Bol and Citizen Q.

AI & Media Innovator & Entrepreneur, France

Benoît is a digital & media innovator, senior advisor, keynote speaker and entrepreneur. In 2017, he launched Flint (hhtp://flint.media), a collaborative experience between humans and robots. Powered by his startup Trendsboard, Flint uses artificial intelligence to curate quality and tailored news content. As an advisor, Benoît Raphaël proposes a combination of ready-to-launch strategies based on data and creativity, and operational leadership. He has created many successful and innovative digital medias in France:

  • 2015 : he has successfully launched a new paywall model for the french local newspaper "Nice-Matin", based on crowdfunding, impact journalism and events.
  • 2012 : co-creator of a new disruptive media for the french national radio "Europe1"​ : Le Lab (lelab.europe1.fr).
  • 2011 : creator of "le Plus"​ (leplus.nouvelobs.com) a participative platform for the french news magazine "le nouvel Observateur"​.
  • 2007 : co-founder of Lepost.fr, a web-based news site launched by the french press group Le Monde.

Benoît Raphaël is also partner and strategic advisor at Sans A_ (an impact journalism media created by millenials), content advisor at TedX Champs-Elysees (Women & Education) and co-founder of «Hub France IA»

Publishing Consultant FT Strategies, WAN-IFRA Supervisory Board Member London, UK

Lisa MacLeod was Head of Digital at Tiso Blackstar Group, South Africa’s largest English-language publisher, and owner of 8 newspapers, 15 websites, music, film and radio businesses across the continent.  Her role was to lead digital strategy and innovation, and manage Tiso Blackstar’s online properties with 6-million unique browsers monthly on titles such as TimesLIVE, SowetanLIVE and BusinessLIVE, as well as implement sustainable digital monetisation streams.

Lisa was previously General Manager of Digital for Media24’s 24.com in Cape Town, and prior to that spent 12 years in London at the Financial Times, helping to drive their print to digital integration. She served as Head of Operations for FT.com, widely thought to be the most successful paid website in the media industry, and FT Managing Editor, overseeing staffing, strategic planning and budgets for the FT globally

From 2018-2020, Lisa served as the Vice-President of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and is currently a member of the Supervisory Board. She has been on the board of the World Editors Forum (WEF) for many years, and has taught and spoken at numerous international conferences and training events for WAN-IFRA , WEF and Women in News.

 

President, Innovation Media Consulting Group, UK

As a Partner at Innovation, Juan Senor has directed projects all over the world helping news operations to re-invent their products and stay relevant with shifting audiences. He has worked and advised hundreds of media companies on every continent. He serves on the Advisory Board of several media companies around the world. 

He has been listed as one of 'The World's Leading Innovators' in Journalism and Media' by Journalism UK Site.

Mr Señor is a highly-sought commentator on the media industry, speaking at global forums and quoted frequently in leading publications such as The Economist and The Financial Times. 

He is also the co-editor of two annuals books; Innovation in NewsMedia and Innovation in MagazineMedia, written on behalf of WAN-IFRA and the FIPP respectively.

He is a former journalist and presenter for PBS's NewsHour, EBN-Wall Street Journal TV, CNBC Europe. And he served as London correspondent of International Herald Tribune Television. His work has been nominated for an Emmy Award and his television programme, Media Report, was voted by viewers as Europe’s Best Business Programme. He continues to work as a live events and television host and presenter globally.

Director, Journalism Leaders Programme | Co-convenor: Digital Editors Network, UK

Dr François Nel and Dr Coral Millburn-Curtis lead the Innovation Research Group which is a partnership between applied researchers from Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford and the University of Central Lancashire, where François is the founding director of the pioneering Journalism Leaders Programme. He has worked with WAN-IFRA since 2009 to research the priorities of news executives worldwide and is the editor of the association's World Press Trends initiative. François is the first academic to become an executive member of the World Editors Forum and works to support entrepreneurial individuals and forward-thinking organisations worldwide, including News UK, Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press, CN Group and Times Media Ltd (South Africa).

Project Coordinator, WAN-IFRA, France

Andrea Wagemans photo

Andrea joined WAN-IFRA's Global Alliance for Media Innovation as Project Coordinator in 2017, and is mainly responsible for the Research & Innovation Projects that GAMI participates in (INJECT, CPN, Media Innovation Mapping). She gets most energy from projects like these that bridge research and practice, applying new insights about media innovation to real-life situations. This is also the focus of her ongoing PhD-research and research projects at the University of Groningen. Before joining GAMI, she worked as a (freelance) journalist and researcher.

Global Publishing Director Elect, McKinsey & Company

Raju Narisetti previously was Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and also Director of Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism.

Previously, he was CEO of Gizmodo Media Group, a group  of digital journalism sites that included Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, Lifehacker, and The Root.

A media executive with a track record in creating, rethinking and managing major media organizations  in North America, Europe and Asia, Raju was previously Senior Vice-President of Strategy at News Corp.

Prior to that, he was Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, where he is responsible for WSJ's digital / mobile content strategy and execution;  the Managing Editor of The Washington Post, where he led the integration of its digital and print businesses; the Editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe; and is the Founder of Mint, the second-largest business newspaper in India.

Raju is a Board Trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation, which manages Wikipedia. His home is in New York City though he is often found, rather plainspoken, @raju

Editor-in-Chief, Austria Presse Agentur, Austria

Michael Lang is the editor in chief of the independent Austrian news agency APA (Austria Presse Agentur). He started his journalistic career 30 years ago within the agency as a reporter and general news editor and joined the editorial management in 1997. 

Since then Michael was responsible for almost all relevant innovation projects concerning strategy, editorial workflows and multimedia. In 2003 he started designing the new headquarters of APA in Vienna including the most innovative and largest newsroom in continental Europe at that time which is still considered a role model for new agencies worldwide, before he took over his actual position in 2005. Currently he oversees APA’s transformation from a news- to   news-tech-agency.   

For more than 15 years Michael acts as a speaker and presenter on the topic of editorial innovation in conferences worldwide. He is a board member of the Austrian press club „Concordia“ and teaches editorial management at the University of Vienna.

Director of Products, Digital and Editorial Strategy, Editora Abril, Brazil

Isabel Amorim is currently Director of Products, Digital and Editorial Strategy for all brands of Editora Abril. Previously, she launched the digital version of the newspaper El Pais in Brazil, accumulating responsibility in the area of copyright for the Prisa Group.

From 2001 to 2013 she directed The New York Times Syndicate in Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Isabel holds a bachelor's degree in business administration, a post-graduate degree in communication from the School of Communication and Arts at the University of SP, has an MBA from Business School SP and Rothman School in Toronto, and a postgraduate degree from IE Madrid in Global Management. 

In June 2016 Isabel was Fellow of the course taught by Francis Fukuyama and Roger Leeds for Stanford LAD and Insper in Brazil. Today she participates in the LAD group of Stanford.

Isabel is a member of the LATAM advisory committee of WAN-IFRA, part of the board of INMA-International News Marketing Association, and a member of the jury of the journalistic award offered by the Inter-American Press Association since 2011.

Editorial Manager, AFP Medialab, France

Denis Teyssou is the editorial manager of Agence France-Presse (AFP) Medialab, a team dedicated to Research and Development and innovation projects. Being a journalist and an open source geek, Denis has led AFP’s participation in three European funded projects, two FP7 (Papyrus, GLOCAL), and a running innovation action Horizon2020 InVID, on user-generated video content verification. 

He has also led for AFP seven French funded R&D projects : five from the National Research Agency (RMM2, EDyLex, OTMedia, ChronoLines and the running ASRAEL) and two from the French government fund FUI (SCRIBO, SAMAR).

Managing Director, MEDIA.figaro, France

Alexis Marcombe, Managing Director of MEDIA.figaro since 2014, has been a key player in the digital advertising industry for 15 years now. Prior to joining MEDIA.figaro, Marcombe was Managing Director of Hi-Media in 2009 and founded Audience Square in 2012. As Managing Director of MEDIA.figaro, the sales house of Group Figaro in France, Marcombe leads the organisation’s development in its digital business and operations. By the end of 2015, Figaro Group bought CCM Benchmark Group and became the first digital media group in the French market with 35 million unique users per month in France and 100 million unique users world wide. As a result, Figaro Group is able to provide its advertisers (i.e. premium sales, data, programmatic, trading desk, etc.) with a complete and innovative range of digital solutions.

Former Technical & Production Director, The Times of India, India

 Sanat Hazra studied at the Rochester Institute of Technology, earning BS in Photographic Science & Engineering, MS in Printing Technology and attended Tuck College at Dartmouth University studying Corporate Leadership Program. Before joining the Times of India as Technical and Production Director in 2008, Sanat worked at the New York Daily News as VP of Production. Sanat dedicated 14 years with the New York Times prior to joining the New York Daily News. As Executive Director of Production at the New York Times, Sanat was responsible for transforming the company's two printing plants into state of the art operations, optimising the entire supply chain of the newspaper, implementing Statistical Process Control and Six Sigma process and Winning many International Newspaper Color Quality Club awards.   Prior to the NYT, he worked for the Crosfield Electronics as Senior Material Science Engineer. At Crosfield Electronics, he developed direct imaging thermal plate for CTP application.

Director Policy and Programmes, Free Press Unlimited, The Netherlands

Leon Willems is Director Policy and Programmes of Free Press Unlimited. Under his guidance, Netherlands-based Free Press Unlimited has become one of the leading press freedom organisations of today, active in almost 40 countries. He believes that media are crucial tools for democracy building and contribute to the development of society as a whole.

Director of Insights & Editor-in-Chief, WAN-IFRA, Germany

Dean is Director of Insights and Editor-in-Chief of WAN-IFRA, he is responsible for coordinating all activities related to the organisation's array of multimedia publications. He has more than 25 years’ experience working in the news publishing industry, much of that time spent researching, analysing, identifying and ultimately reporting about global media developments.

CEO and Executive Editor, Rappler, Philippines

A journalist in Asia for nearly 35 years, Maria Ressa co-founded Rappler, the top digital only news site that is leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines. As Rappler's executive editor and CEO, Maria has endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government, forced to post bail eight times to stay free. Rappler's battle for truth and democracy is the subject of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary, A Thousand Cuts. 

For her courage and work on disinformation and 'fake news,' Maria was named Time Magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year, was among its 100 Most Influential People of 2019, and has also been named one of Time's Most Influential Women of the Century. She was also part of BBC's 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019 and Prospect magazine's world's top 50 thinkers. Among many awards, she received the prestigious Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the Knight International Journalism Award from the International Center for Journalists, the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University, the Columbia Journalism Award, the Free Media Pioneer Award from the International Press Institute, and the Sergei Magnitsky Award for Investigative Journalism. 

Before founding Rappler, Maria focused on investigating terrorism in Southeast Asia. She opened and ran CNN's Manila Bureau for nearly a decade before opening the network's Jakarta Bureau, which she ran from 1995 to 2005. She wrote Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia and From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism.

CEO, Digital Content Next, USA

Jason Kint is the CEO of Digital Content Next, a trade association serving the needs of high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and marketers. Jason is focused on guiding the organisation’s diverse group of members — from established media brands such as The New York Times, NBC, Conde Nast and ESPN, to digital natives, such as Vox, Slate and Business Insider — into the future and on setting the agenda for discussions on issues ranging from net neutrality to revenue innovation to privacy. Kint is a 20-year veteran of the digital media industry.

Exec Director, Digital Revenue Network, WAN-IFRA

Nick runs WAN-IFRA's most advanced digital revenue programmes, including the Table Stakes Europe programme and the subscription focused eRev initiative, as well as managing our events and operations in Europe & Africa.

He started his career in London and has over fifteen years experience in innovative digital projects and collaborative working.

Before joining WAN-IFRA, he managed IT projects for ExxonMobil, Deutsche Bank and the European Patent Office, and facilitated the exec forums and conferences for the e-gov agency London Connects. He has a Diploma in Creativity, Innovation & Change from the Open University Business School.

Director, Gender Initiative, The New York Times, US

Francesca Donner is director of the newly-launched Gender Initiative at The New York Times. The initiative elevates gender as a lens through which we view the world; and aims to amplify diverse women’s voices, lead the public conversation around women’s and gender issues globally, and engage female readers with The New York Times. In its first few months, the Gender Initiative focused on the sexual harassment scandals breaking across the world and launched The #MeToo Moment newsletter.

Previously, Francesca was the director of Times Insider, a New York Times initiative designed to take readers behind the scenes of Times journalism while elevating a culture of candour and transparency. Before she joined The Times, Francesca was a deputy editor at The Wall Street Journal, where she covered the business of management and worked on digital newsroom strategy. Francesca grew up in the UK, is a graduate of Stanford and Brown universities in the U.S. and lives in New York City.

Chief Technology Officer, Axios, USA

Matt Boggie is the Chief Technology Officer for Axios. Matt was most recently executive director of the R&D Lab at The New York Times. His work was covered in Wired, Gizmodo, Columbia Journalism Review and others. The first of its kind, the Lab's process and inventions inspired similar programs around the world.
 He has a 17-year career focused on making media work better, from strategic futures to new inventions. He has worked with leading companies like Verizon, the Washington Post, PBS and Discovery. Among his many awards, Matt was named the distinguished Alumnus from Boston University's computer science department in 2010, and is the author of 3 patent applications for innovations in advertising, information presentation, and audience analysis.

Director, International News Safety Institute (INSI), UK

Hannah Storm is Director of the International News Safety Institute (INSI), a UK-registered charity, which provides safety advice and training to journalists working in difficult and dangerous situations, from conflict to disasters, civil unrest to online harassment.   Its members include many of the world’s leading news organisations including the BBC, CNN, Reuters, Globo, AFP and NHK.   Storm is the co-author of ‘The Kidnapping of Journalists: Reporting from High Risk Conflict Zones’ and ‘No Woman’s Land: On the Frontlines with Female Reporters’, which explores the unique safety issues for women working in the media.   She also works as a freelance media consultant and trainer for different UN agencies with a specific focus on gender and the media.   Before joining INSI, Storm spent more than a decade working mainly overseas as a journalist for outlets including the BBC, The Times, Reuters and ITN, as well as a media officer for Oxfam.

INNOVATION Senior Consultant, Media Consulting Group, UK

Consultant and advisor to organizations on digital and commercial strategy. Formerly at Guardian Newspapers, KPMG Boxwood and BAE Systems. Skilled in setting up, managing and delivering complex, global change and transformation programs.

CEO, WAN-IFRA, France

Peyrègne took up duties as Chief Executive Officer of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) on 1 October 2012. Prior to joining WAN-IFRA, since the end of 2008 he worked in the office of the French minister of Culture and Communication where he was responsible for newspapers and new media as well as the “états généraux de la presse écrite,” the French government’s response to the economic difficulties facing the newspaper industry. From 2004 to 2008 he was head of development at Edipresse Publications SA in Lausanne, with responsibility for reader studies and marketing research.

Co-founder, fathm, London, UK

Fergus Bell is an experienced journalist, editor and leading expert in digital newsgathering, verification, newsroom innovation and collaborative journalism projects. He is also a strong advocate for higher ethical standards in digital journalism.
Fergus’ experience spans both the business and editorial sides of the news industry. He spent eight years at the Associated Press, where he became their first International Social Media and UGC Editor. He then headed up newsroom partnerships and innovation for digital newsgathering start-up, SAM Desk. Fergus founded Dig Deeper Media in 2015 and advises broadcasters, publishers and start-ups on social and digital newsgathering, newsroom transformation and innovation. In 2017 he launched Pop-Up Newsroom, a framework for collaborative journalism projects that has already seen success in the US, UK, Sweden and won an Online Journalism Award in 2018 for "Verificado" - an initiative designed to monitor for misinformation during the Mexican elections. Fergus was named as a 2019 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow. He is a faculty member of the European Broadcast Union’s Academy. He serves on the board of the Online News Association. He is the co-founder and CEO of fathm a media consultancy and news lab.

Editor-in-Chief, SME, Slovak Republic

Beata Balogová is the editor-in-chief of the independent SME daily newspaper, one of the major dailies and news-sites in the Slovak Republic.

Beata graduated with Master of Science degree in journalism from the School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York, USA. She was a Fulbright scholar appointed to the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1994. Beata has Master of Arts degree cum laude from the Comenius University School of Journalism, majoring in journalism.

Beata joined the SME daily in December 2014. Prior to joining SME, between 2003 and 2014, she served as editor-in-chief of Slovakia’s English-language weekly The Slovak Spectator. In the past, she also worked for Slovakia’s first private newswire, SITA, and the state newswire, TASR. 

Beata is one of the co-organizers of the Best Media Traditions program, which brings Pulitzer Prize winning journalists to Slovakia. Since 2016 she has been member of the International Press Institute (IPI) board. She writes political commentaries and editorials for SME and The Slovak Spectator.

Director of News Ecosystem Development, Google, UK

In his role, Madhav Chinnappa works on partnerships and collaboration between Google and the news industry.  Most recently, he launched the Digital News Initiative which in March 2018 evolved to become part of the Google News Initiative, Google's overarching global framework for engagement with the news ecosystem.  

Madhav joined Google in 2010 to focus on Google News & Magazines in the EMEA region. He has worked in the news industry since 1994 - first in the launch team of Associated Press Television (APTV), a year in M&A at United News & Media and spent over 9 years at BBC News, latterly as Head of Development & Rights.

 

Project Manager and blog editor, France Télévisions Lab, France

Barbara joined France Télévisions in 2011. She currently works as Project Manager within the MediaLab, a team serving the newsroom through Research and Development and innovation projects. She is also the editor of Méta-Media, a blog exploring future journalism and media literacy, and gives trainings and talks on editorial innovation and media trends.

Director, EPFL-ECAL Lab, Switzerland

Nicolas Henchoz is the Founder and Director of the EPFL+ECAL Lab in Switzerland. The EPFL+ECAL Lab is a unit of the EPFL (Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne) in cooperation with ECAL (University of art and design Lausanne). Its mission is to foster innovation at the crossroads between technology, design and architecture.

The Lab bases its activities along three axes: giving new meaning to technologies developed in the scientific labs, fuelling innovation by widening the scope of designers’ work and forming new links between research and applications for society.

CEO, Orb, USA

Molly Bingham is the driving force behind Orb. An award-winning documentary filmmaker, photographer and journalist, Molly has covered news and conflicts around the globe. Her work has been featured in leading media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Independent, Vanity Fair, and she has appeared on top network and cable television and radio news programs. Named in 2012 by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of “20 Women to Watch,” Molly is at the cutting edge of defining journalism in the digital age, with a unique vision for discovering and covering global stories while making original content accessible and engaging. Molly serves on the boards of The Overseas Press Club and The Listen Campaign. A graduate of Harvard University, Molly was awarded a Nieman Fellowship in 2004, where she first began developing Orb’s core concepts.

Group Digital Editor, Independent News & Media, Ireland

Fionnuala O'Leary is the Group Digital Editor for Independent News & Media. She was previously a news executive with the company. For the past five years she has spearheaded INM’s digital success, growing its flagship digital title, Independent.ie to become Ireland's biggest news website.

Fionnuala is also the CEO of a Hubble, a MarTech consultancy that uses computer science, artificial intelligence and authorship tracking to transfer audience and commissioning insights into other industries.

Directeur du Développement Numérique du Groupe Télégramme, France

Depuis 20 ans en tant qu'acteur de la transformation et de la monétisation digitale, j'ai développé un sens aigu de l'anticipation et un savoir-faire éprouvé dans la gestion et la réalisation de projets. Du géomarketing au revenue management, de la publicité à l'abonnement, j’ai pour priorité les besoins des clients et le développement business.

WAN-IFRA

Manfred Werfel was WAN-IFRA’s Deputy CEO until he retired on 1 June 2019. He was responsible for the Expo business of the association. He also managed the World Printers Forum, the print community within WAN-IFRA.

Since 1996 Werfel was part of WAN-IFRA’s management team. Over time he was responsible for Research, WAN-IFRA Reports, Expert Committees, Consulting, Training, Print Quality Projects, Events, Innovation Projects, World Press Trends, World News Media Congress, World Printers Forum and Expo. In 2012 he acted as Interim CEO.

Head of Facebook News Partnerships, Facebook, Brazil

Claudia Gurfinkel is the Head of Facebook News Partnerships for Latin America. She is responsible for leading the work developed with media outlets and journalists across the region, supporting them to reach new audiences and grow their businesses in the platform. With almost 20 years of experience in editorial projects and digital content, Claudia has worked in companies such as BBC Brasil in London, Folha de S.Paulo, Microsoft and the news portal Terra.

Outgoing Editor, Toronto Star, Canada

Michael Cooke is the outgoing Editor of the Toronto Star, a position he has held for the past nine years. Raised near Lancaster in Northern England, Michael worked on London’s Fleet Street, and at Bristol’s Western Daily Press before emigrating to Canada. There he joined The Star, Canada's largest newspaper, before moving to The Gazette in Montreal and The Edmonton Journal. He became editor in chief of The Vancouver Province in 1995.

Michael was one of a team of founding editors of Canada’s new national newspaper, The National Post.  And, for the summer of 1998, Michael served as the last editor of The Financial Post, supervising the paper’s merger with the new national newspaper.  During both periods, Michael continued to edit The Province.  He was named editor in chief of the Chicago Sun-Times in 2000.

He was appointed editor in chief of the New York Daily News in 2005, returning to Chicago as Vice-President of Editorial for the Chicago Sun-Times news Group (100 titles) in 2006 and re-appointed editor in chief of the Sun-Times that same year.

Michael has travelled extensively in Africa in the last five years, most notable doing pro-bono work for the Canadian-based Journalists For Human Rights foundation. He has given journalism seminars in many countries, with longer stays in Congo, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia and has recently become a videographer.

 

Head of Partnerships and Business Development, Jigsaw, USA

Patricia Georgiou is the Head of Partnerships and Business Development for Jigsaw, an Alphabet unit that builds tools to tackle a range of global security challenges including defending against digital attacks, mitigating the rise of online hate and harassment, countering online extremism, and fighting censorship.

 

She started her career as a lawyer advising international clients on M&A and IPOs. She then joined the French government’s strategic fund as impact investor, before moving to New York as head of international business affairs for a Sony label. She’s also done pro bono work for several associations including Human Rights Watch.

 

Patricia graduated summa cum laude from the Paris Sorbonne University with a Masters in Law, and also holds a law degree from the University of Edinburgh. She lived in the Middle East and Europe before moving to the US and is fluent in French, Arabic and Spanish.

 

Global Managing Director, Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal

Jonny Wright was appointed Managing Director International of Dow Jones in January 2016. He previously served as Managing Director APAC and Publisher of Financial News and WSJ Pro. Mr. Wright is responsible for defining and implementing growth strategies for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones outside the United States. Mr. Wright is based in Hong Kong.

Previously, Mr. Wright was Circulation Director in Europe for The Wall Street Journal, a role he held from January 2013. Mr. Wright first joined Dow Jones in 2010 as Advertising Sales Director for Dow Jones’ Financial News.

Before joining the Dow Jones, he was Publisher and Group Sales Director at Euromoney Institutional Investor based in New York.

CEO & Co-Founder, CrowdTangle, USA

Brandon Silverman is the CEO and co-founder of CrowdTangle, a leading social analytics and discovery platform that was acquired by Facebook. CrowdTangle is used every day by thousands of publishers around the world from the New York Times to the BBC and BuzzFeed. Prior to CrowdTangle, Brandon helped start a nonprofit that trained civic & nonprofit leaders to drive change in their communities, including how to use emerging digital and social tools as a part of their work. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and currently lives in Oakland with his wife, 3-year old son and golden retriever.

COO, Público Comunicação Social, Portugal

Since 2009, as an executive board member, Cristina Soares manages the transformation of Público, aiming at a sustainable business model based on digital, as this Portuguese Newspaper remains a national reference for journalism quality, innovative company and corporative efficiency. She runs also other companies in the group, in radio, printing and distribution.
Previously, Cristina worked with Bonança Assurance, ELF OIL Portugal, HCB - Cahora Bassa Hydroelectric Mozambique and Siderurgia Nacional Portugal, as controller, organizational advisor and corporate conversion process. Cristina joined the Board of WAN-IFFRA in 2017. She has a Master and MBA from ISCTE Lisbon.

CEO, Impresa, Portugal

Francisco Pedro Presas Pinto de Balsemão is the CEO of Impresa, the largest media company in Portugal, since March 2016. Previously (October 2012), he acted as Impresa’s Executive Director and COO responsible for Human Resources, Legal Affairs and Sustainability. He graduated in Law from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon and has a Masters Degree in Law from Oxford University, UK. He also undertook business and management courses at Nova School of Business and Economics (Lisbon), Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Lisbon), Kellogg School of Management (Chicago, USA), IMD Business School (Lausanne, Switzerland), Esade Business School (Spain), and Singularity University (Silicon Valley, USA).

He began his career in 2003, as an Associate at Linklaters (Lisbon) and later, in 2008, as a Human Resources Consultant in Heidrick & Struggles (Lisbon). He joined Impresa in 2009, as Human Resources Director. Before, in 2007, he was an Assistant Adviser in the Portuguese Mission to the United Nations (New York), having worked in the 3rd Committee (Human Rights).

Francisco is also the Vice-President of SIC Esperança, an NGO, since 2013, and a Director of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, since November 2017.

Founder and Director, Welad Elbalad Media Services LTD, Egypt

Fatemah Farag is the Founder and Director of Welad Elbalad Media Services LTD, a company dedicated to community media development and media excellence in Egypt. She is also currently a Nieman Fellow, the MENA Director for WAN IFRA’s Women in News Program and a WEF Board Member.

Before establishing Welad Elbalad Media Services, Ms. Farag was the founding chief editor of the English Edition of Al Masry Al Youm. Before 2009, she divided her professional time between the newsroom and journalism training and education. She was Assistant Chief Editor, responsible for the features and life-style sections and senior staff reporter at Al-Ahram Weekly, the English language newspaper issued by Al-Ahram, before which she worked for the Regional Bureau of the Washington Post, was a full time staff reporter for the Middle East Times – Egypt, and has freelanced for a host of local and international news organizations. 

As an educator she has held the position of Training Consultant for the Heikal Foundation for Arab Journalism and has also consulted and trained for various organizations including the European Union, the British Council, Free Voice and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. She also taught journalism at the American University in Cairo (AUC) for two years and continues to dedicate time to journalism training.
Ms Farag began her career specializing in development issues with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and as a reporter and newspaper editor she has dedicated much of her work to the coverage of social issues. She is a graduate of the American University in Cairo, from which she also received a Masters degree in political science.

Editorial Director, Organización Editorial Mexicana, Mexico

Martha Ramos Sosa is the editorial director of the Organización Editorial Mexicana (OEM), the largest Mexican print media company and the largest newspaper company in Latin America. The company owns a large newswire service, it includes 70 Mexican daily newspapers, 24 radio stations and 44 websites.

She serves as a member of the World Editors Forum advisory board.

Martha is former editor, web of Publimetro Mexico and a former editorial director of Diario 24 Horas. 

CEO, Gazeta do Povo, Brazil

Guilherme Döring Cunha Pereira is the Chief Executive Officer of Grupo Paranaense de Comunicação (GRPCOM), the largest communication group of the State of Paraná and one of the foremost media companies in Brazil. It administers newspapers such as Gazeta do Povo and Tribuna, three radio stations, eight regional TV stations affiliated to Rede Globo, and the Instituto GRPCOM, which has a strong participation in education and the third sector.

Mr. Cunha Pereira holds LLM and JD degrees from the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), where he was also a Business Law professor for three years (1996-1998). He is the founder, the coordinator and one of the professors at the master’s program in Journalism for Editors, a course dedicated to capacitate leaders in Brazilian and Latin American media companies.

As the CEO of GRPCOM, Mr. Cunha Pereira has had prominence in the Brazilian communication industry for his strong positioning in the defense of democracy and of the freedom of speech. He recently concluded the transitioning of Gazeta do Povo from a traditional print newspaper to a modern digital vehicle.

Digital Director, Grupo America, Argentina

Alejandro Lladó is Grupo América’s Digital Business Director. Under his management, the group decided in 2017 to innovate with a new product, UNO. Primarily focused on audiovisual content, UNO, which brands itself as “Argentina’s first native mobile media,” publishes content on its mobile site and on a variety of social media channels. The desktop version of the site features a scrollable image of a mobile phone on a green background, replicating what the content looks like when accessed via mobile. UNO claims to attract around 500,000 monthly users to its site. More than 90 percent of them access the content via mobile, and upwards of 85 percent are between 18 and 34 years old.

 

President WAN-IFRA , former Vice Chairman, The New York Times, USA

Michael Golden was appointed vice chairman of The New York Times Company in October 1997. He was also elected to the Company’s Board of Directors in 1997. From 2009 to January 2012, Mr. Golden served as president and chief operating officer of The New York Times Company Regional Media Group. Mr. Golden served as publisher of the International Herald Tribune from 2003 to 2008.

Mr. Golden is the President of WAN-IFRA. He is also chairman of the board of directors for International Center for Journalists, a Washington, DC-based non-profit organisation that raises journalism standards through hands-on training workshops, seminars, fellowships and international exchanges. Additionally, Mr. Golden serves on the boards of The Associated Press and the Newspaper Association of America. He also serves on the board of directors of Graham Windham.

Editor in Chief, Vision Group, Uganda

Barbara joined the New Vision in 1992 as a sub-editor trainee and rose through the ranks to Deputy Features Editor and then Features Editor, a position she held for ten years. In 2006, she was appointed deputy Editor-in-Chief and in April 2010, she was promoted to Editor-in-Chief. Barbara’s current responsibilities include overseeing the editorial strategy and journalistic standards of the Vision media platforms. Vision Group owns nine newspapers, six radio stations, three TV stations, a set of magazines and websites. 

She heads the editorial team that provides leadership in all managerial aspects: strategic planning, content generation and editing, product marketing, staff development, audience interaction and external relations. 

Barbara holds a Masters Degree in Journalism and Media studies from Rhodes University, South Africa and a post-graduate Diploma in Practical Journalism from the Thompson Foundation, Cardiff, United Kingdom. Before she became a journalist, Barbara was a high school teacher. To this effect, she holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education from Makerere University and a Masters Degree in Education from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

Barbara was an international Journalism Exchange fellow in 2007 with the International Centre for Journalists and American Society of Newspaper Editors. 

Her speciality is development journalism and she has coached and groomed many journalists in Uganda towards this. In 2012, Barbara received the National Jubilee Award in recognition of her contribution to the media in Uganda.  

Together with the team at Vision they have evolved a unique brand of journalism that has grown from simply telling stories to media products that foster development by offering role model practices in farming, education, health, entrepreneurship, environment etc. These projects started off as newspaper stories but they have since developed into big media projects and events throughout the country.

Head of Business Development and Internationalization at Global Media Group, Portugal

Own words: With more than 15 years of experience in the Media, Communication and Advertising market(s), I always worked in the areas of New Business and Partnerships, Marketing Management, Project Management, in close contact with IT/IS and Sales. Before my corporate / executive career, I have also successfully launched two start-ups. In my latest roles, as Deputy Director New Business / Innovation, I have developed, implemented and successfully managed short and long-term projects, most of them complex and with high impact on P&L, leading multidisciplinary teams. On top and beyond my very effective track record, these functions allowed me to have a strategic vision of business and an international network connected to different business areas, of which I highlight in particular the Portuguese and International Media, Internet and Technology companies.

Head of DNI Innovation Fund, Google, France

Before joining Google Ludovic Blecher was the director of the FINP, a digital press fund for French publishers backed by Google. Ludovic is a journalist and has spent the past 15 years working in the news industry. He started as a reporter at Liberation.fr, rising to Editor in Chief then Executive Director. He's a 2012 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and he was a member of the French Digital Council an independent advisory commission for the French Government.

Head of New Platforms, BILD, Germany

Andreas Rickmann is Head of New Platforms at the German Media Brand BILD since 2014. He graduated with a diploma at German Sport University Cologne and was trained at Axel Springer School of Journalism.

70th World News Media Congress, 25th World Editors Forum

Shariff