Meet the Newsroom Summit 2020 Advisory Panel!

Ingeborg Volan
Editor for publishing strategy and visual journalism, WEF Board member
Dagens Næringsliv
Norway

Ingeborg Volan is editor for publishing strategy and visual journalismat Dagens Næringsliv, Norway’s most prominent business newspaper. Previously, she held the position of director of audience engagement. She’s an online news veteran who early saw the possibilities of reaching audiences better online. She’s very passionate about understanding news users and letting their needs shape journalism. Among other roles, Ingeborg has previously worked as the first head of social media at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and lead the NRKbeta innovation crew. She’s also taught digital journalism at the Norwegian Institute for Journalism, been head of newsroom innovation at Adresseavisen and president of the Norwegian Online News Organization.

Swantje Dake
Editor in Chief Digital
Stuttgarter Zeitung
Germany

Swantje is editor-in-chief digital of the Stuttgarter Zeitung and the Stuttgarter Nachrichten since 1 June 2018. She is responsible for the editorial orientation and strategy of the digital products of the two Stuttgart newspaper brands. Prior to this position, Swantje headed the Digital Unit, the joint online editorial office of Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten. Over the past two years, she has also played a decisive role in the development of cross-media editorial work. Dake will now assume overall editorial responsibility for the digital products of the press house in Stuttgart.

Dmitry Shishkin
Digital transformation / content strategy / innovation
WEF Board Member
UK

Dmitry is an expert in digital transformation, content strategy, and innovation. He worked for 21 years at the BBC in London where he was responsible for developing and implementing the BBC’s digital editorial offer for 40 non-English foreign language new services. Originally from Moscow, Russia, Dmitry worked in various editorial-development roles for the digital section of BBC News. These roles required liaison between editorial, product and strategy teams in order to drive innovation and develop new ways of reaching audiences, increasing engagement across the world and, crucially, driving culture change is newsrooms. He is an experienced digital leader in content creation, specialising in growing audiences across the world, driving editorial changes in newsrooms and adapting the way organisations work in digital space, especially around content innovation and audience engagement. 

After his years at the BBC, he joined Culture Trip, a startup operating at the intersection of media and travel. He is now pursuing new adventures. Dmitry's main area of expertise is on the intersection between Editorial, Organisational, Strategy and Product sectors.

Thomas Thelen
Editor in Chief
Aachener Zeitung
Germany

Thomas Thelen has been Editor-in-Chief of Aachener Zeitung and Aachener Nachrichten since August 1, 2018. He was responsible for the digital versions of both daily newspapers. Thelen studied sports science and sports journalism at the German Sports University in Cologne. He was employed as a permanent editor at the Aachen newspaper publishing house in 1998 and since then held various positions, including leading the technical processes team.

Cherilyn Ireton
Executive Director World Editors Forum
WAN-IFRA
UK

Cherilyn Ireton heads up the World Editors Forum, the global network for editors within WAN-IFRA. She is a seasoned newspaper professional, having spent more than 20 years on South African newspapers, as journalist and editorial manger on the country's leading titles, the Sunday Times and Business Day. She rose to be Chief Operating Officer of BDFM Publishers, the business media joint venture between Pearson, owners of the Financial Times, and Times Media in South Africa which published Business Day newspaper, the Financial Mail magazine and Summit TV. She relocated to the UK in 2005 and owned an ran a London-based media consultancy, Presslinks, which advised a variety of international organizations and foreign governments.