World News Media Congress 2022

BA, Oxford University; MBA, London Business School. 1988, journalist and news executive with CBS News, ITN, Sky News. 2005, Professor, Head of Journalism, City, University of London. With the World Economic Forum: 2009, Managing Director, Head of Communications and Media; currently, Member of the Managing Board, Head of Foundations and Public Engagement. 2005-06, President, Britain’s Media Society. Member: BAFTA; Royal Television Society. Co-Author: Crunch Time – How Everyday Life Is Killing the Future (2007); Can You Trust The Media? (2008). Recipient of awards.

Born in 1979 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he has been CEO of Prensa Ibérica since December 2014. He holds a degree in Journalism from Ramon Llull University, as well as a master’s degree in Communication, Information and Audiovisual Business Management from the University of Barcelona and a General Management Program (PDG) awarded jointly by IESE Business School and the University of Navarra.

Alan Fisco provides oversight and leadership of The Seattle Times’ executive team, and maintains direct leadership of finance, circulation, operations, human resources and labor. He is also responsible for The Seattle Times’ affiliate newspapers, the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and the Yakima Herald-Republic, and its commercial printing plant, Rotary Offset Press.

Alessandra Galloni became editor-in-chief of Reuters in April 2021. She oversees all editorial functions across video, text, pictures, and graphics. She is the first female editor-in-chief in the organization’s 170-year history. Previously, Galloni was global managing editor, overseeing news planning and creation, where she was responsible for overseeing Reuters coverage and developing stories with a cross-regional focus. She first joined Reuters in 1996 for the Italian-language news service in Rome, later moving to the equities reporting team in London. She re-joined Reuters in September 2013 as editor of the Southern Europe bureau following 13 years at The Wall Street Journal, where she worked as a reporter, economics and business writer and editor, in London, Paris and Rome.

Alexandra Borchardt is a highly experienced senior journalist, book author, lecturer, and independent media advisor. She is a member of the WAN-IFRA’s Expert Panel, a distinguished network of experts who offer impartial advice on a range of strategic digital business and organisational issues. Alexandra’s expertise areas include: Managing digital change: strategy and culture, Leadership development, Climate journalism strategy.

Alia Ibrahim is co-founder and CEO of Daraj.com, a Beirut-based independent digital media platform launched in November 2017. Before that Ibrahim was a Senior Correspondent at Al-Arabiya News Channel, which she joined in 2008. From 2015, Ibrahim produced and directed episodes for Special Mission, a prime-time investigative reporting show. Her assignments took her to Tunisia, Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Andreas is the CEO of Medienhaus Aachen GmbH which publishes the two daily newspapers “Aachener Zeitung” and “Aachener Nachrichten”. Andreas started his career as a journalist at Medienhaus Aachen GmbH over forty years ago.

After having worked as a journalist for daily newspapers and being the editor-in-chief for the weekly freesheets, he changed to the commercial units and managed B2B operations, IT, production, digital publishing. Since 2008 he is the CEO of Medienhaus Aachen. He is vice president of the German Association for the freesheets in which he chairs the committees of distribution operations and sustainability.

Carlos Godó Valls (Barcelona, 1967) is CEO of Grupo Godó. Fifth generation of the founding family of La Vanguardia, Carlos Godó holds a law degree from the University of Barcelona. He collaborated with the Milton Schwartz law firm in New York and, after an apprenticeship in the United States at the Gannet Group and Washington Post, he began his career at the Godó Group, where he was closely acquainted with most of the departments and headers of the firm. His first important position was that of Managing Director at one of the group’s historic newspapers: Mundo Deportivo. The newspaper underwent some of its most important transformations, abandoning the engraving gap and moving from black and white to color, and multiprinting was developed throughout the national territory, allowing Mundo Deportivo to double its circulation.

In 1997 he was appointed General Manager of the group and in 2003 General Business Manager, a position he left in 2005 when he became CEO of Grupo Godó. La Vanguardia, the flagship of the group, has been adapting to the digital world to the point of consolidating leading positions in the national market. In the paper edition it is the second largest in Spain, according to OJD data, and the first in number of subscriptions. Both media are prominent leaders in Catalonia.

Carlos began his professional career at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). In 2000, together with other partners, he launched the Internet startup Verticalia, the first vertical industry portal for Spain and Latin America.

After 13 years in consultancy specialising in the Utilities sector, in 2013 she joined the Agbar Group in charge of the Customer Strategy Department, with the aim of defining and implementing the Group’s positioning strategy in CSR and business communication throughout Spain, ensuring synergies with corporate positioning and in turn declining the Communication plans in accordance with the specific characteristics of the different companies. In recent years, the Department has evolved into the Business Communication Department, where it has also focused on a capillary digital communication strategy and the development of new communication formats that bring the reality of environmental services closer to society, and making internal communication a driver of staff engagement through projects such as the Ambassadors Network.

Catarina Carvalho is the Founder and CEO of Mensagem de Lisboa, a community news startup in Portugal. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute and is the former Executive Editor of the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias. During her leadership at the paper, she oversaw its transition to a digital-first brand, with the print edition now only available on Saturdays. She started her career in journalism as a reporter, covering a number of areas for several national titles, before moving into leadership roles.

Concha is a Partner at Deloitte Spain with more than 20 years of experience in professional services. Since 2016, she has been leader of the “Media & Sports” industry, and since fiscal year 2020, leader of the “Climate & Sustainability” practice for Deloitte Spain. Much of his professional career is linked to the Firm, of which he has been part since 2000, when it was called Arthur Andersen. During this period, she has been part of the main processes of concentration, strategic redefinition and restructuring of leading companies in the media and entertainment sector, as well as leading audits and IPOs of listed companies in Spain and the USA.

Danny is COO at The Ozone Project where he is focused on helping publishers’ around the world create and retain value in their ecosystems through publisher-centric technology provision & strategy consulting. Prior to joining The Ozone Project, Danny led global adtech & data strategy at The Guardian.

David Boardman is Dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University in Philadelphia. He has academic and financial responsibility for one of the largest and most comprehensive programs of its kind, with some 2,500 students and 200 faculty members.

David was appointed Chief Digital Publisher of the Reach Group plc in July 2022. He was previously Deputy Editor (Audience and Customer) with responsibility for developing the digital audience. In his new role, he is expanding his role to include readership diversification, with an immediate focus on the youth audience and video strategy. Reach plc is one of the UK’s largest publishers, with a turnover of £615.8m in 2021, with a portfolio that includes daily newspapers such as The Mirror, Express and Star, magazines such as OK!, local newspapers such as Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo, and online titles such as Live and Fish4Jobs.

David Walmsley is the Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chief. Under his editorship, The Globe and Mail has won the annual Canadian Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism three times as well as dominated the annual National Newspaper Awards.

David is leading Cogency, a project which brings together publishers, technologist and members of the web3 community in a coalition that aims to provide practical solutions for improving revenue and trust using decentralised technologies. Partnering with Web3 Foundation the project’s focus is on the Polkadot protocol, which connects blockchains and allows value and data to be sent across previously incompatible networks. David is also a visiting policy fellow at Oxford University’s Internet Institute where his focus is on the impact of AI, ML, data and Web3 technologies.

Dean is Director of Insights and Editor-in-Chief of WAN-IFRA, he is responsible for coordinating all activities related to the organisation’s array of multimedia publications. He has more than 25 years’ experience working in the news publishing industry, much of that time spent researching, analysing, identifying and ultimately reporting about global media developments.

Dmitry Shishkin is the CEO of Ringier Media International. He joined the Swiss based group in 2024. Before joining Ringier, he became well known as an expert in digital transformation, content strategy, and innovation in publishing. One of his focus areas is the concept of user needs.

Eduardo Navarro de Carvalho is Chief Corporate Affairs & Sustainability Officer of Telefónica Group, and President of the Board of Directors of Telefónica Brasil, S.A. Before assuming this position, Eduardo was the President and CEO of Telefónica Brasil | Vivo and previously held key global positions in the Telefónica Group, including Chief Commercial Digital Officer (CCDO) and Director of Strategy and Business Development. He was also Director of Strategic Planning and Regulatory Affairs for Telefónica Internacional. Eduardo joined Telefónica in 1999, as Vice-President of Corporate Strategy and Regulatory Affairs for Telefónica Brazil. Before joining the Telefónica Group, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Co., where he led Telecommunications and Infrastructure projects in Latin America, Europe and Africa. He began his career as an engineer in the Brazilian operation of ARBED, a steel and iron producer. Eduardo holds a Metallurgical Engineering degree from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Eero Korhonen is Head of News and Publisher Partnerships EMEA, Google. He has more than twenty years of experience in strategy and operations, partnerships and executive relationships in the media industry. He has been working at Google since 2012. During his career Eero has lived and worked in Helsinki, Istanbul, London and Madrid, where he currently lives with his wife and two children. He has an M.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Technology, Helsinki.

Emily Bell is Founding Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, Leonard Tow professor of Journalism, and a leading thinker, commentator and strategist on digital journalism. The majority of Emily’s career was spent at Guardian News and Media in London working as an award winning writer and editor both in print and online.

Emma Tucker was appointed Editor of The Sunday Times in January 2020, and previously was deputy editor of The Times for nearly seven years. Emma joined The Times from the Financial Times where she started her career as a graduate trainee eventually becoming Editor of the FT Weekend. During her career with the FT, Emma covered the UK economy and the European Union in Brussels.  She joined the Times as Associate Features Editor in 2007 before taking over the editorship of Times2 a year later. After five years she took up a new role as Editorial Director where she helped foster a much closer working relationship between the editorial and commercial teams.

Ester García Cosín has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Havas Media Group Spain since 2018. She previously held the position of Director of Operations and Strategic Development at Havas Media Group Iberia, and was integrated in the Group’s Executive Committee.

Federica Cherubini is Head of Leadership Development at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. She is an expert in newsroom operations and organisational change, with ten years experience spanning major publishers, research institutes and editorial networks around the world. Federica specialises in devising and implementing new and improved ways of working, bridging people, disciplines, departments, projects and cultures.

Fergus Bell is the founder & CEO at Fathm, a multi-award winning independent news lab, agency and consultancy. Fathm has a mission of working with people who are trying to spark creative change and drive sustainability in media by improving newsroom processes and efficiency, making use of emerging technologies, and tackling the ever increasing problems of mis and disinformation.

Fernando de Yarza is the President of Henneo, a news media group that includes 20 minutes and Heraldo de Aragon (Zaragoza, Spain). He is Vice-President at the Spanish Association of Information Media (AMI). Fernando de Yarza López-Madrazo was elected President of WAN-IFRA in June 2019.

Journalist, writer and president of Agencia EFE since May 2020, Cañas is the first woman to head the agency. Born in 1957 in Cuenca, she holds a degree in journalism from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has worked at the Diario de Cádiz, Radiocadena Española and the newspaper Informaciones. She was part of the founding group of the magazine El Globo, belonging to the PRISA Group and joined the newspaper El País in 1981 where, among other positions, she was head of the Madrid and Society sections and deputy director of its school. She taught at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid’s Journalism School and at El País between 1993 and 2000. From 2000 to 2005 Cañas was correspondent in Brussels, and from 2014 to 2017 correspondent in Paris. Between 2006 and 2008, she was director general of International Information at the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency and was a member of the commission for the modernisation of legal language.

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.

Georgie Cauthery is B2B Content Director at the Financial Times, which she joined from Reuters. As Content Director, Georgie is responsible for steering the commercial strategy for B2B branded content campaigns across EMEA, identifying key trends and championing innovative branded content solutions.

Guy Berger is an independent media and Internet expert. He spent a decade as a senior official at UNESCO, overseeing the Organization’s global work on press freedom, safety of journalists, internet freedom and media development. From 1994 to 2010, Berger headed up the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, South Africa. He has published and presented extensively, and worked in both television and press, including writing a long-running column on the media for South Africa’s Mail & Guardian. Over his career, Berger has been recognised with several awards, and has also served as elected deputy chair of the South African National Editors Forum. He holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from Rhodes University.

Héctor M. Aranda is vice-president of Grupo Clarín and general director of AGEA S.A., publisher of Diario Clarín. Grupo Clarín’s main assets are ARTEAR S.A., responsible for the television channels Canal 13 and TN, Radio Mitre S.A., Argentina’s main radio station, and AGEA S.A., responsible for Diario Clarín and Diario Deportivo Olé; its assets also include the company CIMECO, owner of the newspapers “La Voz del Interior” (of Córdoba) and “Los Andes” (of Mendoza).

Born in Madrid in 1973, Ignacio holds a PhD in Communications and Informational Sciences and Degree in Journalism.

Professional Career:

• 2018-2019 TELEFÓNICA. Global Director of Corporate Communications Corporate Communications Development
• 2011-2018 BBVA. Global Director of Communication Strategy and Corporate Communications
• 2008-2011 BBVA. Marketing Director for Spain and Portugal
• 2005-2008 LIBERTY SEGUROS.. Director of Communication, Corporate Responsibility and Innovation in Spain
• 1999-2005 C&IC COMUNICACIÓN. Associate Director
• 1997-1999 INNOVA Y COMUNICA MEDIA. Consultant in political communication.
• 1993-1997 Journalist. Editor for ABC newspaper and freelance journalist.

Ignacio Martínez de Albornoz is the Business Development Director of Henneo, one of Spain’s main Media and Technology groups, with responsibility over strategic projects all across the company’s divisions (News Media, Technology, Audiovisual and Printing&Distribution). He joined Henneo in 2017. Previously he has worked as a strategic consulting manager in Accenture and as the Director of the foreign trade and investment agency of the regional government of Aragón.

Íñigo de Yarza belongs to the fifth generation of the publishing family that was founded by Heraldo de Aragón, the seed of HENNEO, over 125 years ago. Íñigo began his professional career in the logistics department of DASA, where he played an active role in the launch of a new newspaper in La Rioja and Aragón (Spain). Subsequently, he joined the Corporate Strategy Department at Endesa. In 2011, after a two-year period in the United States, he joined HENNEO, where he held various executive positions and, from 2021, the position of CEO. Íñigo is also Chairman of Alayans, Chairman of Hiberus Tecnologia, Director of the Asociación para el Progreso de la Dirección (APD) and a member of the member of the executive committee of the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce.

Irene Lanzaco is a senior manager in the Spanish media industry. She has worked for some of the main Spanish news media houses in top positions, both as an executive and Board member. Currently general manager of AMI, the Spanish media association.  She is an expert in corporate governance, M&A and new technologies, Lanzaco is also a member of the board of directors of News Media Europe. She is passionate about freedom and a big defender of the key role of news media in society. Lanzaco has also been named by PwC as a Women To Watch. She is a graduate in Law at ICADE, has a masters degree from IESE and is a Women in News at INSEAD. Mum of three adorable teens.

Jan Stian Vold is a Norwegian journalist with more than 20 years of experience in the online news business. He was the news editor in Bergens Tidende from 2014 to 2020 and is currently working as a project lead in the same media house. Amongst his recent responsibilities is the so-called Boligrobot – a new and sophisticated way of presenting automated text from the real estate market in and nearby Norway’s second-largest city.

Jane leads editorial innovation for Reuters, developing new business areas including AI, verification and events, as well as working closely with clients and others in the media industry to understand current and future trends, find new opportunities and meet customers’ changing needs. Her work includes improving digital storytelling formats, building new editorial capabilities for growth and tackling industry challenges from misinformation to talent.

Jason Lambert is Senior Director of Media Business for Internews. He is the co-founder of Newsgain, a leading consultancy that provides business expertise to help news organizations become financially sustainable – it was recently acquired by Internews.

Javier Garza Ramos is an independent journalist in Torreón, northern México and an expert on journalist safety. He is the founder of the local news platform EnRe2Laguna and the host of the daily radio newscast Reporte100. He serves on the Board of the World Editors Forum.

Working across The Independent and London Evening Standard as Chief Data & Marketing Officer, Jo is tasked with driving the First Party Data Acquisition, Data Monetisation, Registration, Analytics and Consumer Subscriptions/CRM strategies across the business. She also oversees GDPR compliance.

Joan Chirwa is a Zambian journalist with over 18 years of experience both in the field and editorial management.
She is the founder of the Free Press Initiative Zambia, a non-profit media organization. Joan served as the first female Managing Editor of The Post Newspapers from February 2015 until its liquidation in November 2016. She then moved to become Editor in Chief and CEO of The Mast, the Post’s forerunner, until 2018.

Joanna Krawczyk, Head of News Partnerships at Gazeta Wyborcza, has been cooperating with Polish and international media outlets, non-governmental organizations and European institutions for many years. She is President of the Board of the Wyborcza Foundation and serves on the board of the European Media and Information Fund. She is Chairwoman of the Leading European Newspaper Alliance.

Jose A. Navas is head of the subscription product at El Confidencial. His current role involves defining the strategy for the user revenue business and working with different areas, such as editorial, commercial, design, development, optimization, and marketing. Former journalist, his career has been linked to product development for the last ten years. Prior to El Confidencial, he worked as a product manager at El Mundo and Mediaset Spain.

José del Rio has specialized in economic and business journalism for 28 years. He studied journalism at the UCA and did a postgraduate degree in graphic journalism at the same university. He also holds a degree in Business Administration from the UBA and in 2010 he completed a postgraduate course in advanced finance at the UCA. He also holds a PhD in Business Administration from the UCA. Today he works as Editor – in- Chief at La Nacion Newspaper. Since the creation of LN + he hosts the programmes Comunidad de Negocios on Sundays and Mesa Chica on Tuesdays.

For almost eleven years he was the journalistic director of the magazine group and deputy director at El Cronista. Under his management, APERTURA (which grew as a leading magazine in the economy and business segment), INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (technology for executives), CLASE EJECUTIVA (lifestyle) and RPM (cars) renewed their contents. He was also responsible for the supplements and one shots of the newspaper El Cronista and for the management of the websites APERTURA.COM and INFOTECHNOLOGY.COM.

With three decades of legal and business experience culled from banking, real estate, mergers & acquisitions, media, and advertising, Joe joined Trib Total Media and helped with its business and digital transformation. He was instrumental in starting 535media, a digital advertising agency, and has been leading its programming and development department since 2015.

Juan Aurelio Arévalo Miró Quesada is the editor-in-chief of El Comercio, a Peruvian newspaper with 183 years of history.  He has been an editor of politics, sports columnist, editor of the world news and science sections, as well as head of Fidelización in a career spanning more than a decade at the newspaper.  He was awarded Peru’s National Journalism award, two INMA prizes, and two Grupo de Diarios de America (GDA) awards for innovative editorial proposals.

As a Partner at Innovation, Juan Senor has directed projects all over the world helping news operations to re-invent their products and stay relevant with shifting audiences. He has worked and advised hundreds.

Kat Downs Mulder is Chief Product Officer and managing editor of digital at The Washington Post, bridging newsroom and engineering and driving a strategy aimed at accelerating digital innovation across the company. Downs Mulder oversees a hybrid structure that includes teams from news, product and engineering, including journalists focused on visual storytelling, news curation, audience development and emerging news products as well as engineering and product groups responsible for the development of The Post’s website, apps, subscriptions, and internal tools. Under her leadership, these teams share a roadmap focused on attracting new readers, growing digital subscriptions and pushing the boundaries of how journalists tell stories.

Kathy English is the Chair of the Canadian Journalism Foundation. She is a former VP, Content Integrity & Editorial Standards for Dotdash Meredith, America’s largest digital and print publisher.
Previously, she served for 13 years as public editor of the Toronto Star responsible for adjudicating reader complaints and upholding transparency and accountability standards across Torstar Corp’s 80-plus Canadian daily and community news organizations.

An experienced media manager and board member: Katia has been Chief Product Officer and Editor in Chief for major publications in Switzerland and the Global Media Unit of Ringier AG.

Khalil works to bring more value to more people in more places with The Conversation’s unique evidence-based journalism. He oversees audience growth, engagement retention and monetisation, working with a global team spanning six continents.

Ladina Heimgartner (*1980) has been a member of the Group Executive Board of Ringier AG since February 2020 and, as Head Global Media, is responsible for Ringier’s media business at Group level. She has been CEO of Ringier Media Switzerland since September 2023.

Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist whose work can be seen in the Guardian, BBC, The Week and more. She is a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, where she reports on media and innovation in the Global South. She is co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists.

Laura has regularly worked as a trainer for the Thomson Foundation, Press Association and within newsrooms. Her training specialises in digital and social editorial strategy, audience development and social newsgathering, having previously worked for the Guardian as Head of Social and Communities and Conde Nast International as Acting Head of Audience Growth. She is currently studying for a Master’s degree in creative writing, hoping to expand from journalism into fiction.

Lea Eberle, Project Manager CFO at Ringier AG and Head of Strategy of the EqualVoice initiative, has been part of the Ringier Group for 6 years. She now brings her expertise, achieved through her Master’s degree in Banking and Finance as well as professional experience in various positions in the company’s finance department, to further development in a multifaceted way. Lea functions as Head of Strategy for the significant EqualVoice initiative and is committed daily to promoting equal opportunities for women and men and increasing women’s visibility in the media. Her strong professional expertise and interest in fresh, innovative approaches has had a profound impact on the growth of this expanding initiative. Her work includes acquiring, mentoring and advising high-profile partners and clients, as well as developing unique strategies and solutions to make the vision of Gender Equality a reality.

Lenka Černá works in the media house Economia a.s. since 2019 as vice-chairman of the board of directors. In addition, she became its CEO last year. As a manager, she worked for many years in the management of companies specializing in process management, quality control and certification. For seven years, she was the head of the Annonce publishing house operating on the market of advertising titles, managing the process of its digitization, the sale of the publishing house and the subsequent integration into the media house Vltava Labe Média. She is the co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of the Institute of Independent Journalism. Lenka is also a member of the board of directors of the Czech branch of Transparency International.

Lisa has over 25 years of experience in print to digital transformation, most notably at the Financial Times where she led newsroom operations, was an Assistant Editor and Managing Editor, Associate Editor and Head of Operations for FT.com. She led group-wide digital transformation projects at both of South Africa’s biggest publishers, Tiso Blackstar (now Arena Holdings) and Naspers’s 24.com.

Lisa is former Vice President of the World Association of News Publishers, advisor and coach with Women in News, a board member of the World Editors Forum, Leader in Residence at the University of Lancashire and a mentor with the Journalism Innovation Leaders faculty.

Liz Corbin is the Deputy Director of Media and Head of News at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). She oversees the Eurovision News and Sports Exchange, the Social Newswire, the News Events broadcast services team and Radio News.

Lotta has been a part of Sweden’s media landscape since 2006 and has followed the creative path at Schibsted since 2011. Being one of the four founders of Schibsted Brand Studio in 2016, she has an unique knowledge on how to transform traditional advertising into creative concepts that move brands in both awareness, preference and consideration.

Co-founder of The Self-Investigation. She is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, digital wellness educator and Acumen fellow working on raising awareness on how technology is changing the way we interact with ourselves, each other and as a society. She writes a column in the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial on this topic. She’s committed to creating a healthier working culture in journalism to prevent others from burning out, like she did, after leading the technology and data work for the Panama Papers investigation.

Marcelo Rech has been the President of the Brazilian Newspaper Association since 2016 and is a columnist for the daily Zero Hora in Southern Brazil. For 27 years he was an executive at RBS Group, where he worked as a reporter, Director of Journalism and Editorial and Institutional Vice President. After graduating in journalism, Marcelo has completed specialisation courses at Kellogg’s Media Management Center and in Media Strategy at Harvard Business School. He is Vice-President of the World Editors Forum, where he was President between 2015 and 2017.

As Director Digital Publishing, Margret Müller oversees the product development at Rheinische Post Mediengruppe. The group is one of Germany’s largest regional newspaper companies publishing four local news brands. Of these, RP Online (Rheinische Post Brand) is one of the widest reaching German daily newspaper online portals, which counts some 12 million unique users each month. Margret is responsible for the product developments for the group’s ePaper, News App, Newsletters, videos and podcasts. Together with her team of product managers and data analysts she develops state-of-the-art products and ensures the their growth and subscription success. This includes working on attractive digital and audience-focused content with the newsroom as well as ensuring excellent sales processes and customer-centred advertising options, depending on the business model. As one of the key drivers of digital transformation of the group, Margret – also thanks to Rheinische Post‘s participation in the WAN-IFRA Table Stakes Europe – takes a lead role in shaping not only the product world for the readers, but also the required internal processes.

Mariana Santos is a Portuguese girl who wants to change the world, and is working on it right now. She founded Chicas Poderosas, a non-profit organization that aims to bring more women into technology, started in Latin America, back in 2013 while she was an ICFJ fellow.

Mark Zohar is an experienced technology and business executive with over 20 years of experience founding, operating and scaling technology, SaaS, and digital media companies. As an entrepreneur, product and technology leader, and C-suite executive, Mark has helped build, grow and manage to exit technology software companies; developed and launched new digital products and lines of business; and led product, engineering and sales teams to success.

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.

Melanie Walker is Media Development Director and Gender Lead at WAN-IFRA. Melanie is a gender and media development expert with more than 10 years’ experience leading capacity building and advocacy initiatives which place gender equality at their core. As director of Media Development for WAN-IFRA, she oversees the organisation’s media development portfolio, which includes management of a multi-million euro budget to support media in 25 countries around the globe. Melanie is a creator of WAN-IFRA’s sector-leading Women in News programme and the architect of WAN-IFRA’s Gender and Media Freedom Strategy, an ambitious multi-year initiative to promote women’s leadership and voices in the news with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She manages WAN-IFRA’s Media Freedom Board, as well as the Media Freedom Brain Trust, which contributes to WAN-IFRA’s media freedom programmes as trainers, mentors and advisors.

Michael Young is chief technology officer for Reuters. As CTO of Reuters, Young oversees overarching technology strategy, including technology development, architecture, platforms, testing and operational resiliency. He was previously the head of digital experience platform for Thomson Reuters, where he was responsible for all technology and development, including digital properties, e-commerce sites and self-service technologies.

Miguel López-Quesada has dedicated 15 years of his professional life to communication and consultancy in some of the largest companies in world public relations (Burson-Marsteller and Weber Shandwick), supervising international programs aimed at the creation and protection of the reputation of companies, NGOs, political institutions and organizations commercial.

He has chaired the divisions of Weber Shandwick in Latin America and Spain and Portugal. In 2007 he went on to direct the Communication of the digital services company for Grupo Zed mobiles, covering sectors such as mobile content, video games and animation in more than 60 markets.

Mikel holds a degree in Information Sciences and a PhD in Communication from the University of Navarra. He also has a Management Development Programme, PDD-IESE, and a Senior Management Programme in Digital Business at The Valley Digital Business School. He was director of ‘Diari de Tarragona’ and in 2001 he joined ‘Heraldo de Aragón’, head of the HENNEO media group. He was appointed director in 2008.

Mohit Jain, is the Chief Operating Officer (Publishing) & member of the Board of Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL). He also represents BCCL on the Board of Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), an industry

Nancy Lane is the dynamic leader of the Local Media Association, an organisation that supports nearly 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, digital sites, radio stations and R&D partners in North America. LMA’s mission is to reinvent business models for news.

Natalia Antelava is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of Coda Story, a digital newsroom created for context and continuity in coverage of crises. An Emmy-nominee and award winning journalist, Natalia is originally from Tbilisi, Georgia but she started her career freelancing in West Africa.

Natalie Turvey is President and Executive Director of The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF), a not-for-profit organization that supports excellence in journalism through education, research, and one of the industry’s most prestigious annual awards and fellowships program.

Nicholas Johnston is the Publisher of Axios, where he now focuses primarily on Axios Local and other major newsroom initiatives. Previously, he was Axios’ editor-in-chief where he led the entire Axios newsroom and regularly spoke about politics, policy and business on MSNBC, CNBC and Fox News.

Nnenna advocates for policy and systemic changes that are needed for meaningful internet access, open data, open government and the open web across Africa, bringing together local and international stakeholders to advance the digital agenda. She works to drive affordable internet access, data rights, digital freedom and digital responsibilities of stakeholders, sectors and actors. Nnenna is a respected technology voice and leader in Africa. Her capacity to network and bridge the gap between the local and the global has made her a voice bearer for women, rural populations, the unconnected and the civil society across the world.

Noemí Ramírez is Director of Product and Digital Development at UNIR, the leading digital university in Spanish-speaking markets.
She has an extensive track record of more than 20 years of management experience in the media sector, where she has specialized in leading, executing and converging.

Nwabisa Makunga is the Editor of the Sowetan, a national daily publication in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has been a journalist for 18years, with a keen interest in politics, socio-economic development and gender equality. She is the former Editor of The Herald & Weekend Post and former News Editor of Business Day, South Africa. Makunga has vast experience in Newsroom leadership, change management and systemic migration to digital platforms. She is the Deputy Chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum and a member of the SA Press Council.

Pål Nedregotten is Executive Vice President in charge of Product, Editorial and Subscriptions development, including Tech & Data at Amedia, which is with its 79 newspapers Norway’s largest local media publisher. He’s previously held various leading positions at the company at the crossroads between technology, product development and journalism.   At Amedia, he has since 2013 been central in developing and rolling out the company’s centralised login solution, digital subscription strategy and data strategy.    A veteran in the Norwegian online journalism field, he’s been working in the intersection between online development and journalism since 1994.  He was instrumental in spearheading some of the earliest examples of Norwegian online publications, experimenting with, among other things, live online chats/interviews between editors, panellists and interviewees as early as 1996 – as well as working closely with the editorial interfaces of home-grown publishing systems since 1997.

Pamella Makotsi Sittoni is a Kenyan journalist with more than 20 years’ experience in the media in East Africa.

Sittoni has recently been promoted to Group Managing Editor at Nation Media Group, and has previously served as Executive Editor Partnerships of the Daily Nation, in the Nation Media Group (NMG). Throughout the years, she has held several leadership positions including Executive and Managing Editor at Daily Nation, and also managing editor of NMG’s regional newspaper, The East African, from 2012 to 2018, and as managing editor of The Standard, from 2005 to 2006. From 2006 to 2012, she worked as a communications specialist at UNICEF Kenya, where she was charged with advocacy for children and women. Sittoni began her career at the NMG as a reporter in 1993 and rose to chief sub-editor. In 2003, she moved to the Standard Group as deputy managing editor. In 2017, Sittoni was named by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) the laureate of the Women in News Editorial Leadership Award for Sub-Saharan Africa. She is a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, through the Africa Leadership Initiative. She holds a bachelor’s in literature and anthropology and a post-graduate diploma in communication from the University of Nairobi. In addition, she has a master’s in communication from the University of Leicester.

Patricia is the Director of Communications at Banco Santander. Previously, she was Deputy Director of the economic daily Cinco Días, where she had previously been editor and editor-in-chief of the macroeconomics, markets and finance areas. Patricia Colino holds a degree in Information Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has completed several executive development programs at IE Business School, IESE Business School and Esade.

Pepa Bueno has been Editor-in-Chief of El País since August 2021.
She holds a degree in journalism from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her career began in news services at Radio Nacional de España in Extremadura, and she was head of news at RNE in Aragon and Madrid. In 1991, she joined RTVE as regional news director, first in Andalusia and later in Madrid. In September 1996, she was appointed assistant director of the current affairs programme Gente. Eight years later she took charge of Los Desayunos for TVE. In 2009 she took on the role of directing and presenting the second edition of the Telediario newscast. In 2012 she joined the Cadena SER’s Hoy por Hoy programme. In 2019, she was appointed director of the evening news programme, Hora 25.

Phil leads the global AFP newsroom of 1,700 journalists based in some 150 countries. Responsible for implementing the agency’s visual-first multimedia strategy and driving the digital transformation of the company. Built AFP’s leading position in the battle against misinformation. On advisory boards of First Draft News, Reporters Without Borders, World Editors Forum and the NewsXchange.

Phoebe Connelly is Senior Editor, AI Strategy and Innovation for the Washington Post, leading the Washington Post’s efforts to employ generative AI and other emerging technologies in service of the Washington Post’s mission to inform, empower, and delight its readers. Previously, Connelly served as Director of Next Generation Audiences at The Washington Post. In this role, she oversees a team focused on accelerating The Post’s reach among younger and more diverse audiences through new products, practices and partnerships. Prior to that, Connelly served as deputy director for The Post’s award-winning video team where she oversaw daily and breaking news coverage, managing a staff that produced more than two dozen videos daily. In that role, Connelly pioneered The Post’s presence on Twitch, experimenting with live video coverage of major news events to reach and engage new audiences. She was part of the team which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its coverage of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Pierre Louette has been Chairman and CEO of Les Echos – Le Parisien, the media division of LVMH Group, since March 2018. The group’s media activities are focused on three key ideas: the promotion of quality journalism, the creation of value in the digital world and the diversification of its brands into new areas (services, e-commerce, events…). Pierre Louette was also elected President of the Syndicat de la Presse Quotidienne Nationale (SPQN) in July 2020 and President of the Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale (APIG) in October 2020. In February 2021, he published a book: “Des géants et des hommes” (éditions Robert Laffont). How to end the hold of the GAFA on our lives.

Rebecca is the BBC’s first Disinformation Editor. She leads teams based in the UK, Africa and India that observe, report and investigate disinformation trends, verify and debunk misinformation, and create digital material to help people recognise and avoid ‘fake news’. She developed and led the BBC’s verification effort of fake and misleading images during the Ukraine crisis.

Rebecca was a 2020/1 fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, where she focused on how Public Service Media should learn from ‘bad actors’ to reach those currently missing accurate, impartial news and information.

A journalist for more than 20 years, Rebecca has advised the UK and EU governments and NATO StratCom on disinformation, and appeared as a speaker, moderator and panellist at international events on disinformation, security and media.

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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

Professor Rosental Calmon Alves is a veteran Brazilian journalist and educator. He leads the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, University of Texas at Austin and holds the UNESCO Chair in Communication.

Ruth Kronenburg leads the organisation’s global activities. She is responsible for the international implemention, operation, advocacy and emergency support. She also oversees international projects in Latin America, West Africa, MENA region, South Asia and Eastern Europe. In her previous role as Director of Operations, she held an equivalent position on the Board of Directors, overseeing and being responsible for the operational side of the organisation. Kronenburg was co-responsible for the increasing development in financial, social, professional and economic growth of the organisation with an eye for the sensitive and security issues of the journalists and media in the world.

Saemmool Lee is the Head of Digital Innovation of the Dong-A Ilbo in Seoul. Ms. Lee directs digital strategies and leads major initiatives for both the newsroom and business side. She received a B.A. in journalism from Korea University, and earned a master’s degree in journalism from University of California, Berkeley. She is an award-winning journalist and published author.

An internationally recognized expert and speaker on building a more trustworthy press, Lehrman was named one of MediaShift’s Top 20 Digital Innovators (2018) for her work founding and leading the Trust Project. Previously an award-winning reporter on medicine and science, her honors include a Peabody Award, duPont-Columbia and the John S. Knight Fellowship, with bylines in Scientific American, Nature, Health, and The DNA Files, distributed by NPR, among others. Her co-edited volume, “Reporting Inequality: Tools and Methods for Covering Race and Ethnicity,” was published in 2018.

Shirish Kulkarni is an award-winning journalist and community organiser with 25 years’ experience working in all the UK’s major broadcast newsrooms and, more recently, at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Sinead Boucher is the owner of Stuff Ltd, one of New Zealand’s largest media companies. Prior to buying the company in an MBO three years ago, she was CEO and has had a long career as a digital leader, editor and journalist.

Siobhan Keam is a Senior Innovation Manager on Condé Nast’s Business Innovation team. Previously leading the development of global membership propositions, including Vogue Business and Vogue Club, Siobhan and the team are now focused on building the company’s web3 strategy. This involves investigating blockchain technologies, virtual ‘metaverse’ worlds and community building strategies, alongside educating internal teams to build their knowledge of the emerging web3 ecosystem.

Sophie Nicholson is Deputy Editor in Chief, Digital Investigations at AFP’s headquarters in Paris. Sophie oversees a global team, working closely with tech companies, media organisations, researchers and fact checkers. Sophie previously worked as a foreign correspondent in Mexico City and has reported from more than 15 countries. She started her career in radio and television at the BBC in London.

Sulina is the Managing Director leading the partnership for News and Books ecosystem in EMEA in relation to Google products and programmes. She joined Google in April 2020 and has since been engaged in Google’s proposals to publishers under the new directive across Europe as well working in Europe, Middle East and Africa on products and programmes and training to support publishers engage with their readers, understand their needs and develop reader revenue as part of their journey towards digital transformation.

Tin Acosta is a product manager at Jigsaw, a unit within Google that explores threats to open societies and builds technology that inspires scalable solutions. Her work focuses on reducing online toxicity and harassment and combating harmful disinformation. Most recently, she and her team worked with Thomson Reuters Foundation to launch TRFilter.org. Tin studied biological engineering and computer science at Cornell University and hails from Manila, Philippines.

Toby Collodora is the senior manager of engagement and retention for Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she leads retention strategy and subscriber engagement efforts.

Tom Trewinnard has ten years’ experience working at the intersection of technology and journalism, leading high-impact international media projects and driving product strategy for collaborative technologies. Formerly Director of Programs at Meedan, Tom led Check Global, a programme dedicated to developing innovative open source tools and training programs for journalists, fact checkers and human rights researchers around the world. 

Toyosi Ogunseye relocated to the BBC, London in 2022, as Senior News Editor for News and Commissioning, for the BBC programmes NewsDay, BBC OS and BBC Minute. Her focus is on the Latin American, Indian and African markets.

Ursula O’Kuinghttons is an established journalist and the Director of Communications and Partnerships at the Web3 Foundation. She began her career at the Spanish newspaper El País, then at Prisa Media TV, followed by a jump into the tech industry to the New York-based blockchain startup, Civil Media Company.

Vivian Schiller joined the Aspen Institute in January 2020 as Executive Director of Aspen Digital, which empowers policymakers, civic organizations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world.

Warren Fernandez joined the paper in 1990 as a political reporter and rose to become a News Editor. He went on to serve as Foreign Editor and Deputy Editor.

Wolfgang Krach is Editor-in-Chief of Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), the paper that first published the Panama Papers. Süddeutsche Zeitung is the largest selling national quality newspaper in Germany, based in Munich.