In a constitutional board meeting on Monday, following IPI’s 59th General Assembly, IPI’s Executive Board reconstituted itself, appointing as new Chairman Prof Carl-Eugen Eberle, Director of Legal Affairs, ZDF German Television, Germany. Prof Eberle takes over from former IPI Chairman Janne Virkkunen, Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, who had held the position since June 2008.
The newly constituted IPI Executive Board also includes two new vice-chairpersons: Galina Sidarova, editor-in-chief of Sovershenno Sekretno newspaper in Russia and Pavol Mudry, founder and former general manager of the SITA-Slovak news agency. The two new vice- chairpersons join Vice Chairman Simon Li, who is the former assistant manager of the Los Angeles Times in the United States.
The General Assembly also elected five new board members: Owais Aslam Ali, Chairman of Pakistan Press International, Linus Gitahi, Group CEO of Kenya’s Nation Media Group, Patricia Santa Marina, Corporate and Public Affairs Director of Grupo Infobae in Argentina, Patricia Smith, Managing Editor of Global Journalist in the USA and Ken MacQuarrie, Director of BBC Scotland.
The five new members of the IPI Executive Board replace Kavi Chongkittavorn, assistant group editor of Thailand's The Nation Multimedia Group, Mark Damazer, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 7 Controller, Charles Eisendrath, director of the Knight-Wallace Fellows at the University of Michigan in the United States, Bartolome Mitre, Director of La Nacion in Argentina and Wangethi Mwangi, who is editorial consultant for the Nation Media Group in Kenya.
Former IPI board member Piotr Niemczycki; president of the Management Board of the Agora media Group in Poland, was awarded an IPI Fellowship for his dedication to IPI. During its meeting on Saturday, September 11, the Executive Board resolved that Alison Bethel McKenzie’s title be changed from Interim Director to Acting Director.
