Business News
Thomas Jacob appointed Deputy CEO and Managing Director Greater Asia / Pacific Region
Wednesday 10. September 2008 - Personnel changes at IFRA
Thomas Jacob has joined IFRA as Deputy CEO and Managing Director in charge of the Greater Asia / Pacific Region. He will be based in Singapore.
“As a part of senior management team, Thomas will be responsible for IFRA activities in South Asia, South and North East Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. We plan to significantly expand our services in the region, and Thomass appointment clearly reflects the importance of the aforementioned markets for the future of IFRA,” says Reiner Mittelbach, IFRAs CEO.
“I am glad to welcome Thomas back to IFRA. His extensive experience in publishing, especially in this region, will certainly enhance IFRAs profile and contribution in its role of promoting and assisting the development of the industry in the Asia Pacific region. Thomas is certainly up to the challenge and Asia Pacific Committee looks forward to working closely with him,” says Pichai Chuensuksawadi, Editor-in-Chief of Bangkok Post and Chairman of the IFRA Asia Pacific Committee.
Jacob is an MBA with high honours from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business. As a summa cum laude, he was inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the US based honour society for management. He is a trained engineer in electronics and telecommunications, having graduated with distinction from the prestigious Karnataka Regional Engineering College in India. He also underwent advanced studies in computer networking at ICIS, Singapore.
Jacob, an industry veteran, has been active in the Asian media scene for over 24 years. Prior to joining IFRA, he worked for Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of Daily Mail and Metro in the UK. As the International Development Director, he conceptualized a compact midmarket newspaper for India and initiated a JV with the India Today Group to launch the new newspaper, Mail Today.
Jacob is not new to the IFRA world either. Before joining ANL, he established IFRAs presence in Asia where he set up the two subsidiaries IFRA Asia and IFRA India. He started the Chinese edition of IFRAs former newspaper techniques, brought out the Asian Newspaper Directory and successfully launched the Publish Asia Conference Expo and the Asian Media Awards events during his previous tenure with IFRA.
Jacob started his career as a rookie engineer in 1984 with Mathrubhumi, a leading newspaper in Kerala, India, and was heading the technical operations before moving to Singapore in 1992 to join AMIC, a mass communication research centre. At AMIC, Jacob started the Press Development Programme for Asia.
Born and brought up in Kochi, India, Jacob is the son of Prof. K. C. Jacob, the former professor of Economics at the Sacred Heart College, Kerala, India. He now lives in Singapore with his wife and two children. An avid golfer, he also enjoys sweating out at the badminton court. However on longer breaks he says that he would rather spend his time enjoying the nature at the national parks and forests.