16 media executives elected to INMA Board of Directors

The International News Media Association (INMA) elected new officers and directors today at its annual business meeting at the Marriott Marquis in New York.

As INMA’s governing body, the Board of Directors is responsible for the strategy and direction of INMA worldwide.

Officers elected were:

Mark Challinor, a long-time London and Liverpool newspaper executive who today is managing director of United Kingdom-based Media Futures Ltd., was elected president for a two-year term.

Eduardo Garces, general manager of El Espectador in Colombia, was elected vice president.

Yasmin Namini, most recently senior vice president/chief consumer Officer of The New York Times, becomes immediate past president of INMA.

Ross McPherson, managing director of McPherson Media Group in Shepparton, Australia, was re-elected to a three-year term as the association’s treasurer.

Challinor began his newspaper career at the Liverpool Echo in the United Kingdom before serving in various marketing and promotion capacities for Trinity Mirror and Associated Newspapers.

He later was Managing Director of two mobile consultancies, Buzz Mobile Marketing and g8wave Ltd., before spearheading the mobile strategy for Telegraph Media Group. Today, he heads up the digital consultancy Media Futures. Challinor has served on the INMA Board of Directors since 2001.

Garces’ three-decade stint in media and marketing have been in Colombia and the United States, starting his career at J. Walter Thompson and eventually becoming an advertising manager and general manager for El Tiempo. In 2008 he joined Comunican S.A. and Inversiones Cromos S.A., which publishes the news daily El El Espectador and magazines Cromos and Vea.

Directors elected were:

Olivier Bonsart, managing director, 20 Minutes France/Ouest France.
Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, president/international, New York Times Company.
Susie Ellwood, publisher, Austin American-Statesman, United States.
Laura Evans, vice president of audience development and data science, Scripps Networks Interactive, United States.
Greg Hywood, CEO and managing director, Fairfax Media, Australia.
Thomas Peterssohn, CEO, MittMedia, Sweden.
Grzegorz Piechota, head of innovations lab, Gazeta Wyborcza, and vice president of the board, Agora Foundation, Poland.
Monica Ray, executive vice president, consumer marketing, Condé Nast, United States.
Members affirmed Board appointments made since the last annual business meeting:

Santiago Alvarez, general manager, El Tiempo, Colombia, as Latin America division president.
Sandy Naudé, group executive advertising and community newspapers, Independent Newspapers, South Africa.
D.D. Purkayastha, managing director and CEO, ABP, India, as South Asia division president.
Rajiv Verma, CEO, HT Media, India.
Retiring from the INMA Board of Directors are:

Kathleen Coleman, director of sales and marketing, The Spokesman-Review, United States.
Ravi Dhariwal, most recently CEO of Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd. (BCCL), India.
Bengt Ottosson, most recently president of Expressen, Sweden.
Robert Whitehead, member of the board, McPherson Media Group, Australia.
The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global community of market-leading news media companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue in a multi-media environment. The INMA community consists of more than 7,000 executives at 600+ media companies in 80+ countries. Headquartered in Dallas, INMA has offices in Antwerp, New Delhi, San Salvador, and São Paulo.