The Society of Publishers in Asia elects FT’s Rhonda Taylor as new Chairwoman; announces 2018 Board
Hong Kong, December 8, 2017 – The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), a Hong Kong-based not-for-profit organization dedicated to pursuing excellence in journalism, today announced the election of Rhonda Taylor of the Financial Times to be its new Chairwoman at its 35th Annual General Meeting.
Other new appointments include Michelle Haase of The Economist Group as the new deputy chair, and Lawrence Jang of Forbes Asia as the new Honorary Treasurer. Meanwhile, Lillian Kung of Bloomberg was re-elected Honorary Secretary, while S.K. Witcher of The New York Times will continue to serve as Chair of SOPA’s Editorial Committee. The full list of SOPA’s 2017-2018 Board can be found below.
“I’m very honored to serve as SOPA’s new Chairwoman. I hope to work closely with SOPA’s Board and supporters in the community to keep promoting the best practices in journalism and publishing via a lineup of events for the new year in different shapes and forms to drive the dialogues,” said Ms. Taylor.
SOPA highlights during the past year include:
- The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence which drew more than 750 English and Chinese-language submissions by international, regional and local media across the region, a record; while the SOPA Awards Gala Dinner saw over 90 guests hear keynotes by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
- A series of Media Insider panel sessions and discussions covering a range of highly topical subjects, including press freedom, journalistic innovation, digitalization, quality content development and fake news.
- Participation in the News Integrity Initiative, a global consortium that aims to improve trust in journalism by helping people make informed judgments about the news they read and share online.
- The HKBU-SOPA Award Winners Forum to share winning visual journalism stories with students at Hong Kong Baptist University School of Communication.
- A collaboration with Bring Me a Book which saw SOPA donate quality books to under-resourced classrooms and homes to encourage children to read.
- A pre-Christmas social at The Winery for SOPA members.
SOPA’s 2017-2018 Board comprises:
- Chairwoman: Ms. Rhonda Taylor (Communications & Brand Manager, Asia Pacific, Financial Times)
- Deputy Chair: Ms. Michelle Haase (Associate Director, North Asia, The Economist Group)
- Honorary Treasurer: Mr. Lawrence Jang (Senior Director, Forbes Asia)
- Honorary Secretary: Ms. Lillian Kung, (Bloomberg Media)
- Byron Perry (Founder & CEO, Coconuts Media)
- Helena Phua (Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific, The New York Times)
- Mi Li (Head of Global Marketing, South China Morning Post)
- Nicole Eno (Head of Media Sales, North Asia, Reuters)
- Toby Doman (Communications Director, APAC, Dow Jones)
- Yi Jia Tiong (Chief Strategy Officer, Ming Pao Newspapers Limited)
About SOPA
The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) was founded in 1982 to champion freedom of the press, promote excellence in journalism and endorse best practices for all local and regional publishing platforms in the Asia-Pacific region. SOPA is a not-for-profit organization based in Hong Kong and representing international, regional and local media companies across Asia. The Society of Publishers in Asia is also host to the prestigious annual SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence, which serve as the world-class benchmark for quality journalism in the region. sopasia.com.
Press release prepared on behalf of The Society of Publishers in Asia by FleishmanHillard.
For further information, please contact:
Ms. Cherry Chan
SOPA Secretariat
Tel: +852 3664-2719
Email: [email protected]