Gavin O’Reilly, the Chief Operating Officer of Ireland-based Independent News & Media PLC, has been re-elected President of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) for a third term of two years.
O’Reilly, 41, who is Irish, was re-elected President Wednesday by the WAN Annual General Meeting, held during the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Göteborg, Sweden. The events, the global meetings of the world’s press, drew more than 1,500 publishers, editors and other senior newspaper executives from 113 countries.
As Chief Operating Officer of Independent News & Media, O’Reilly oversees a leading international newspaper group with more than 200 titles in Ireland, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.
As President of WAN, O’Reilly has spearheaded a number of global initiatives for the industry, notably creation of the Automated Content Access Protocol to protect intellectual property rights of online publishers, and the formation of the News Media Coalition to defend open news coverage of sports and other events. WAN has also undertaken numerous press freedom and industry support initiatives during his tenure.
Fred Arp, Chief Financial Officer of the Telegraaf Media Group in the Netherlands, was re-elected Treasurer of WAN.
New board members from 13 countries were also elected: Frédéric Aurand, Board Chairman of Groupe Hersant Media, France; Oyungerel Batnasan, Executive Director of the Newspaper Association of Mongolia; Indira Crasnea, Deputy Chief Editor of Mediafax, Romania; Philip Crawley, Publisher & CEO of the Globe & Mail, Canada; Mathias Döpfner, CEO & Chairman, Axel Springer, Germany; Dahlan Iskan, Publisher and Chief Editor of the Jawa Post, Indonesia; Tibor Kovacs, CEO of Nepszabadsag, Hungary; Remzi Lani, Director of the Albanian Media Institute; François Le Hodey, CEO of S.A. Informations et Productions Multimedia, Belgium; Jaime Mantilla Anderson, Director General of Hoy, Ecuador; Veaceslav Perunov, Director of the Association of Independent Press, Moldova; Sinha Ratnatunga, Editor-in-chief of the Sunday Times, Sri Lanka; Mikhel Reinsalu, CEO of Eesti Pävaleht, Estonia; and Nelson Sirotsky, President and CEO of Grupo RBS, Brazil.
