Wan-Ifra appoints ANL's Thomas Jacob chief operating officer

Earlier, Jacob served as one of the three deputy cheif executive officers. He will report to the cheif executive officer, Vincent Peyregne and will be responsible for operational management and business development worldwide.

“Thomas brings his knowledge of the different facets of the news publishing industry ... this new role will take advantage of his talents and experience,” said Vincent Peyregne. “His track record in Asia Pacific can be leveraged as Wan-Ifra strives to deliver the best solutions and services to the newspapers and news publishers across the globe.”

Jacob brings over 28 years of experience in media. He began his career as a rookie engineer with Mathrubhumi, a leading vernacular newspaper from India. After helming the technical department for four years, he moved to Singapore to establish IFRA’s presence in Asia. During this tenure, he established the two subsidiaries IFRA Asia and IFRA India. He then joined Associated Newspapers Limited A(NL), publisher of Daily Mail and Metro in UK. As ANL’s International Development Director, he conceptualised a compact midmarket newspaper for the Indian market and initiated a JV with the India Today Group to launch a new newspaper, Mail Today.

Jacob is an MBA with honours from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.  As a summa cum laude, he is also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honor society for management in the United States. He is a trained engineer in electronics and telecommunications, having graduated with distinction from the National Institute of Technology, Suratkal, in India.  He also underwent advanced studies in computer networking at ICIS, Singapore. 

Wan-Ifra, an international non-profit organization, advocates and promotes freedom of the press worldwide, and delivers services and innovative solutions to a membership that includes 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and more than 3,000 companies in 120 countries. Last year, Jacob Mathew, the executive editor of Malayala Manorama was the president of Wan-Ifra.

With a staff of 100 located in its European headquarters in Paris and Darmstadt, Germany, and its subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, WAN-IFRA organizes more than 50 conferences and seminars each year, as well as its flagship events, the World Newspaper Congress, the World Editors Forum and the World Publishing Expo.