Business unusual: leading amid change and transition
Abhishek Marla is the Customer Success Manager for Chartbeat based in Singapore. He works closely with Journalists and Newsrooms across Asia to help them leverage Data to build loyal users and drive higher engagement.
Adisti Sawitri is a managing editor at The Jakarta Post. Since 2018, she has played a key role in the digital transformation process at the largest English language news publisher in Indonesia. She is currently managing digital production and leading initiatives to identify new markets for journalism.
Alberto has spent the last 25 years in the media industry, taking care of content creation, distribution and monetization. A master’s degree in philosophy followed by an experience in the publishing industry as an editor kicked-off a career focused on the digital space. In large multinational organizations – such as Microsoft, Fox and Outbrain – he managed marketing and advertising teams, combining the latest technologies to achieve the most efficient growth in content monetization. He recently completed a training path on Business Sustainability at the University of Cambridge and joined Atex as Head of Business Development and Sustainability.
Becca Aaronson is the interim executive director of the News Product Alliance, a global community of support and practice for news product thinkers. She previously worked as the Director of Product at Chalkbeat, a non-profit, digital-first network of local newsrooms covering K-12 education in seven cities.
At Chalkbeat, she oversaw digital product development and visual storytelling. In 2018, Becca was selected for the Poynter’s Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media.
Becca spent the first eight years of her career at The Texas Tribune, where she became their first-ever product manager. She was responsible for creating and managing the Tribune’s product roadmap and ensuring that technology products aligned with audience and brand strategy. She also co-founded the Tribune’s data visuals team, where she designed, built, and managed several award-winning investigative projects.
Becca has a bachelor’s degree in cultural theory from Scripps College in Claremont, Calif.
Cecilia ‘Pinky’ Concha Colmenares has been the Executive Editor of the Manila Bulletin since May 2013, a 38-year veteran at the paper.
Prior to that, she was editor of special sections: Motoring, Property, Health & Science, Education, Travel, Christmas supplements. She was also founding editor of the Manila Bulletin’s CRUISING, a monthly glossy magazine on motor travel.
As a reporter, she covered special reports, police, arts and culture, housing, agriculture, construction & real estate, education and health.
Before the Manila Bulletin, Colmenares was founding editor-in-chief of “The Visayan Times”, the first daily community newspaper of Negros Occidental. She was also editor of “Iwag” (LIGHT) – the community newspaper on developmental journalism.
Since 2015, she has also been the President of the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists (SPMJ), advocating for safer roads and supporting corporate social responsibility programs in the automotive industry.
Product and audience development; digital and content strategy. Digital editor with broad journalistic and business/product development background in web, apps, audio, print, events and branded content. Speaker, moderator, emcee, podcaster, radio presenter, editor.
Corinne Podger is a results-driven educator, author, and lecturer based in Australia, with a proven track record of supporting newsrooms, NGOs and social impact organisations in more than 60 countries to implement digital innovations that grow audiences and support business priorities. She has worked in the media sector for more than 30 years. She is a firm advocate of media diversity and inclusion in all her work.
Corinne is an accredited trainer with BBC Media Action, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and the Solutions Journalism Network. Her specialisms include digital-first newsgathering, online verification, mobile journalism, social multimedia production, podcasting and audio storytelling, and strategic audience engagement that drives brand awareness and media revenue. She also works with science and public health organisations to tackle misinformation and disinformation.
Damian Radcliffe is the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism, a Professor of Practice, and an affiliate of the Department for Middle East and North Africa Studies (MENA), at the University of Oregon. Alongside holding the Chambers Chair at the School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC), he is also a Fellow of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture Studies, and a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).
An experienced digital analyst, consultant, journalist, and researcher, Damian has worked in editorial, research, policy, and teaching positions for the past two decades in the UK, Middle East, and USA. This includes roles in all media sectors (commercial, public, government, regulatory, academic, and nonprofit/civil society) and all platforms (print, digital, TV and radio).
Damian continues to be an active journalist, writing monthly columns for ZDNet (CBS Interactive) and What’s New in Publishing, and frequently writing for other outlets such as Journalism.co.uk and the International Journalists’ Network (IJNet). He writes about digital trends, social media, technology, the business of media, and the evolution of journalism.
Dominic is the Head of Commerce and Optimization at REV Media Group (RMG). His role involves overseeing Ad Operations, User Experience, Audience Management and he uses data and RMG inventory to deliver more personalized user experience and ads. He is a Marketing and Publisher Data Specialist & Programmatic Evangelist, focusing more on the data use cases of advertising from the publisher perspective. He has 9 years of digital experience with 4 years focused on data-related solutions. His past experience includes Better Digital, Ctrlshift MY and Mudah.my. He has contributed to multiple advertising-related data transformations across Malaysia and SEA through the use of data management platforms.
Donna B. Hall is the Publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) and a veteran media executive with more than 30 years of experience with Cox Enterprises’ radio, tv and newspaper brands.
Prior to June 2019, Hall was VP of Marketing, Radio and Newspaper Operations for Cox Media Group (CMG) Atlanta, which included running the flagship newspaper that reaches more than 2.3 million adults each month across its print and digital products.
She also served as Vice President and Market Manager for CMG Atlanta and Athens radio stations since 2014. In Dayton, she was the Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Client Solutions when the company integrated its radio, TV and newspaper operations in 2010. A recognized industry leader, Hall was inducted into the Dayton Area Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2019 and has been named as one of Radio’s Most Influential Women by Radio Ink numerous times.
Cox Media Group is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company. The company’s operations include broadcast television stations, radio stations, daily newspapers and non-daily publications. Additionally, Cox Media Group operates the National Advertising Platform businesses of CoxReps, Gamut and Videa; and offers a full suite of local and regional advertising services through its Local Solutions and Ideabar businesses.
Gabey has reported on the marketing and technology sectors for over ten years, with experience in online media, magazines, newspapers and radio.
Outside of journalism, she has served as a marketer in the ad-tech industry and led content and education initiatives at a leading trade body.
Gary Liu is the Co-founder & CEO of Terminal 3, a company building the trusted user data layer to ‘empower an equitable web3 future’. He is also the Founder & Director of Artifact Labs which is on a mission to ‘preserve and connect history’ through the development of historical NFTs.
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As Chief Product Officer, Gaurav is driving the vision, strategy, design, development and monetization of SPH Media’s (formerly Singapore Press Holdings) products.
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George Brock is a journalist, consultant and media researcher. He was the director of the journalism school at City, University of London, from 2009 to 2014 and later a visiting professor.
He began his reporting career at the Yorkshire Evening Press and The Observer, joining The Times in 1981. After starting at The Times as a feature writer, he became a features editor and, in 1984, op-ed page editor. He was subsequently foreign editor, Brussels bureau chief, European Editor, Managing Editor and Saturday Editor.
He advises the INJECT and DMINR journalism research projects and startups in news. He is on the board of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Gresham College. He was on the board of the World Editors Forum 2001-14 and WEF’s president 2004-08. He was a member of the executive board of the International Press Institute.
He broadcasts, lectures and is the author of Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age (2013). His study of the ‘right to be forgotten’ was published in 2016. He blogs at http://georgebrock.net
Camillo has been working for the media industry since 1996. A software engineer at heart, he has enjoyed different roles in the software development business, ranging from Product Development management to Operations Director to Product Management. He believes marketing needs to have a thorough understanding of its company, products and the customers it serves. As such he also leads product management for Desk, the Atex multi-channel editorial solution for news publishers.
Jayant Bhargava is the Vice Chief Executive Officer of Kompas Gramedia Group. Kompas Gramedia Group is an Indonesian-based conglomerate with primary business interests across media, hotels, retail, education, light manufacturing, event management and logistics sectors.
He joined Kompas Gramedia Group in October 2018. Prior to joining Kompas Gramedia Group, he was a partner with Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) in the Digital, Business & Technology domain, leading their Media & Entertainment practice. His experience has been focused around digital transformation, internationalization, M&A, operational restructuring and growth strategies.
Joon-Nie leads the WAN-IFRA APAC team in Singapore. A lawyer by training, Joon-Nie spent over 15 years in broadcast television as a reporter, interactive producer, current affairs producer and news editor at Channel News Asia and its predecessors SBC News and TCS News. She has won several in-house awards for reporting, executive producing and best ‘live’ coverage and a Student Emmy for her Masters documentary project produced at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism while under a fellowship from MediaCorp.
In her seven years teaching at Nanyang Technological University, Joon-Nie set up and headed Newsplex Asia, a US$700,000 convergent training newsroom and media lab in partnership with WAN-IFRA.
Besides being a Vice-President of the Singapore Press Club for over 10 years and co-founding the Hacks/Hackers Singapore chapter in 2015, Joon-Nie is also a regular speaker and trainer at conferences, workshops and industry panels both locally and abroad.
Korey Lee joined the South China Morning Post in March, 2017 to spearhead the data operations of the now 115-year-old news organization.
Before joining the SCMP, Korey was Vice President of Analytics at KeyMe, a New York-based hardware startup that leverages computer vision technology and machine learning to provide an automated and seamless key duplication experience for customers across the US. Previously, he was co-founder and CIO of SumAll, a connected data platform for over 500,000 businesses worldwide. Prior to this, he led the business intelligence and analytics teams at AppNexus and Squarespace. Korey has also worked in various capacities at Google, including revenue strategy, sales finance, payment operations, and business analytics. He was previously with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in venture capital tax and audit.
Korey holds a B.A. degree in Business Administration, and a B.S. degree in Economics from University of California Berkeley.
Martha Ramos Sosa is chief editorial officer 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 45 Mexican daily newspapers and 44 websites.
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Meidyatama Suryodiningrat was appointed by President Joko Widodo as head of the national news agency, LKBN Antara, in January 2016. In its eighth decade of service, LKBN Antara is not only one of the main arms of government public communications with a network of over 34 bureaus across the archipelago, but also the largest content distributor of news content in the country to over 250 media and other government and private offices in Indonesia and abroad.
As president director of LKBN Antara, he also serves as chairman of the board of commissioners of PT IMQ Multimedia Utama, and PT ANPA International.
With a background in journalism spanning 18 years, Mr Suryodiningrat, who is also known as Dymas, was previously the Editor-in- Chief of The Jakarta Post. He also worked for two-years outside of journalism as an analyst for a Jakarta-based strategic consulting firm engaged in government and community relations.
He is a former research fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received a bachelors degree (majoring in Political Science and History) from Carleton University in Ottawa, and attended graduate school at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Michelle Martin is a 20-year veteran of the talk-radio industry and daily host on personal finance issues on SPH Radio’s MONEY FM 89.3.
Michelle has won many awards for her work. Most recently she was part of the team that won an award for their live television coverage which saw Michelle helm the commentary desk for Singapore’s last General Elections. The coverage won “video of the year” at Singapore Press Holdings’ annual awards which honour the best of journalism across SPH newsrooms.
Michelle’s insightful conversations with newsmakers earned her two Journalist of the Year nominations in 2014, including one at the Asia-Pacific wide Women Empowerment Journalism Awards.
Michelle’s voice is a recognisable one; public votes saw her nab two back-to-back wins at the Singapore Radio awards
Michelle has thrice hosted the National Day Parade television broadcast, spoken at TEDx Women Singapore and trekked to Mt. Everest Base Camp to raise funds for female survivors of war, poverty and injustice.
Nicholas Sagau Tony is the COO of REV Media Group – a digital media expert and leader from Malaysia. He speaks & moderates conferences about digital products, content, data, marketing and innovation, transformation, corporate innovation and OTT.
He is one of the key members of the digital team at REV Media Group, responsible for developing and expanding the digital business of Media Prima Berhad, the largest media conglomerate in Malaysia. REV’s digital content network reaches 11.5 million Malaysians monthly through 38 authoritative digital brands.
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Phillip Crawley is the Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. He worked in England, Hong Kong and New Zealand before he joined The Globe and Mail in October 1998. In print for 178 years, The Globe and Mail has consistently delivered Canada’s best and deepest coverage of national, international and business news. It has a cumulative digital and print readership of 5.9M weekly.
Ritu Kapur is the managing director and CEO of Quint Digital Media Limited which runs The Quint, an independent news site in India. She has strived to provide multiple platforms for free speech like
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Rohan Tiwary is a technology and media executive with experience across sales, strategy consulting and product marketing. As Head of Media, News & Entertainment Partnerships for Google Asia Pacific, he is responsible for conceptualising and managing complex cross-Google initiatives including the Google News Initiative for the region. These initiatives are aimed at bringing relevant solutions to partners in the media industry to help them remain at the forefront of innovation and technology. Prior to joining Google, Rohan led management consulting projects at Accenture for the Communications, Media and Technology industries. He also has varied experience in strategy and sales with the Times Group and STAR group (Disney) in India.
Rudyard Arbolado is the President and CEO of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the leading broadsheet in the Philippines. PDI also publishes Inquirer PLUS, the digital version of the broadsheet. Some of PDI’s key projects for 2021 include The Inquirer Project Rebound, an advocacy campaign that brings together government, private sector, and civil society to help Filipinos overcome the COVID-19 crisis through relevant and timely information they can use to make informed decisions, and The Inquirer News Initiative, an effort to collaborate with nine local newspapers all over the Philippines to help journalism, especially local journalism, flourish in the multimedia age.
Before his appointment as President and CEO on January 1, 2021, Rudyard successively held the positions of Chief Operating Officer, Chief Finance Officer, and General Counsel. Prior to joining PDI, he was an associate lawyer specialising in corporate law and taxation at ACCRALAW.
Rudyard is a certified public accountant and a member of the Philippine Bar having received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accountancy and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines.
Sheena has been leading programs on the Google News Initiative since its launch in APAC in 2018. She has worked with partner newsrooms on programs that span the full spectrum of newsroom operations and strategy, from diversity, equity, and inclusion to analytics and data. She has designed and executed programs like the GNI APAC Subscription Lab, Design Accelerator & Data Labs in 2019-2020, helping newsrooms develop ideas for news products that serve the needs of both their audiences and internal constituencies.
Sheena’s professional background also includes experience in brand strategy, programmatic ad technology, mobile app productization and sales, and media production – in both corporate and non-profit settings. She also possesses rich geographical experience having worked in different Asian markets including Tokyo, Sydney, and now Singapore.
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.
Stefano Feltri is the Editor-in-Chief of Domani (https://www.editorialedomani.it). Launched in September 2020, Domani is a digital and print news publication with a strong emphasis on editorial quality, investigative work, opinion and commentaries.
Before starting Domani, Stefano was Chief Editor of ProMarket.org at the a University of Chicago – Booth School of Business. Previously, he worked at one of the major Italian newspaper, Il FattoQuotidfdiano, first as the Editor-in-Chief of the Economic and Finance division and, in more recent years, as the Deputy Editor in Chief. In addition, he also worked as a political commentator on Italian TV and Radio networks.
Stefano has a MS in Economics and Management of Innovation and Technology and an Undergraduate Degree in Public Administration and International Institutions Management both from Bocconi University, Italy.
Ms. Tam took up the role of Editor-in-Chief of South China Morning Post Publishers Limited in January 2016, responsible for the editorial direction and newsroom operations. She joined South China Morning Post in late 2011 as Senior Editor and was subsequently promoted to Deputy Editor in early 2012. She started her career in journalism at the Hong Kong Standard before shifting to television industry for 20 years. Having served in Television Broadcasts Limited, i-CABLE Communications Limited (“iCable”) and Asia Television Limited (“ATV”), Ms. Tam developed herself from a reporter to senior news executive. She was responsible for the newsrooms management and leading coverage of many major local, China and international news events. Ms. Tam had participated in cross-media business development while serving in iCable and played a key role in launching the city’s first free-to-air 24 hours television news channel while being ATV’s news controller and later vice president. Ms. Tam holds a Master degree in Journalism, a Bachelor degree in English and also has a Bachelor of Laws degree. She is a member of the Media Communications Training Board, Vocational Training Council.
Lee Chin is Group COO (Group Strategy and Content) of Media Chinese International Malaysia which publishes four leading Chinese newspapers in Malaysia and owns digital assets which cover 70% of Chinese web portal traffic in Malaysia. She currently leads M-Lab, the audience innovation and creative content hub of the group, which is tasked to drive digital audience and revenue growth.
She joined Sin Chew Daily as a culture and education reporter in 2008 and has since assumed different roles within the media organization and has vast experience developing digital growth strategy and innovative products.
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Tim heads up Piano’s fast-growing operations across the APAC region and has worked in and around the digital media business for 20 years. He began his career as a business journalist in the UK contributing to titles such as Management Today, Campaign and Marketing and then moved into the technology/product side of the journalism business for The Telegraph where he led product development, oversaw a number of major website relaunches and led data analysis for the MPs Expenses investigation.
Tim has spent the last 10 years advising media businesses on their subscription and identity management initiatives and joined Piano 4 years ago to run their UK operations, working with Piano clients including The Economist, The Telegraph, The Independent, DMG Media, Tortoise Media, Motorsport, JPIMedia, Newsquest and The Spectator.
Tim has recently moved to Singapore and has an MBA from Imperial College Business School, London.
Twobadour (i.e. Anand Venkateswaran in real life) is the steward of Metapurse, the largest non-fungible token (NFT) fund in the world. He is an inveterate storyteller – as a journalist across print, broadcast and online media; as a brand and communications professional in financial technology, manufacturing and supply chain; as a creative strategist in advertising; and a diffident author.
Early in his career, Twobadour was a correspondent with the Times Group in Hyderabad, before becoming a senior desk editor at CNN-IBN and later, online journalist and chief sub-editor at thehindu.com, where he was part of the team that packaged Wikileaks, in collaboration with The Guardian. He also invigorated The Hindu’s video channel and initiated live coverage of landmark events such as the FIFA World Cup, ICC World Cup and India’s Annual General Budget.
As the steward of Metapurse, Twobadour is tasked with identifying NFTs and NFT-based enterprises ahead of their time. He is a raconteur of metaverse phenomena and collector of fine crypto art. He was the executive producer of the B.20 project, a $2.7 mn metaverse experiment, and architect of a range of initiatives designed to nurture the creator economy in the NFT industry.
Victoria Svanberg is President of NWT Media AB in Sweden. NWT Media is a successful local and regional media group outside the large cities of Sweden, and she represents the fourth generation of this family-owned publishing business, which consists of several local and regional newspapers. NWT’s head office is situated in the midsize Swedish town of Karlstad. She is also Chairperson of the Media Freedom Board of WAN-IFRA which provides guidance and insight on its Media Freedom activities and strategic direction, with a specific emphasis on programmes that receive funding from donors in support of WAN-IFRA’s media development programmes. She is also President of News Media Europe.
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Warren Fernandez se unió al periódico en 1990 como reportero de la sección de política, y llegó a editor de noticias. De ahí pasó a editor de internacional y sub-editor jefe.
En 2008 se convirtió en director global para el proyecto Future Energy de Royal Ducth Shell, antes de regresar al periódico en 2012 como editor. Desde julio de 2016 asumió el cargo de editor jefe para Singapore Press y English/Malay/Tamil Media Group (EMTM).
Fernandez se graduó con honores en Oxford, donde estudió Filosofía, Política y Economía. Además, tiene un master en Administración por la Escuela John F. Kennedy de Harvard.
Dr Zhou Zhaocheng is Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer of Haidilao International Holding (a public-listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange). He is responsible for the company’s branding, legal matters and risk management.
Before joining Haidilao International Holding, Dr Zhou had worked with Singapore Press Holdings for 19 years, he served as Vice President of New Markets of Singapore Press Holdings, Assistant Vice President (New Growth) of Lianhe Zaobao, Editor of Lianhe Zaobao Online cum Editor of Crossroads with Lianhe Zaobao.
Additionally, Dr Zhou serves as the President of Jiangsu Association (Singapore), is a standing committee member of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee of the Singapore Federation of Chinese Clans Association.
He also holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship with the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration and has been a visiting professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies since September 2014. He was a media fellow of the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University from January to July 2011.
Dr Zhou obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chinese Studies from Nanjing Normal University in China in 1994, obtained his Master’s degree in Chinese Studies from the National University of Singapore in 2000 and obtained his Doctorate degree from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2007.
