4th Feb 2009 07:00
4 February 2009 UBM appoints Ninan Chacko as CEO of PR Newswire
United Business Media Limited announces that Ninan Chacko has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of PR Newswire. He will join PR Newswire on 3 February and will take up his new role from 30 March 2009.
Mr Chacko, 44, succeeds Charles Gregson who will retire from UBM as planned at the end of the year. Mr Gregson will step down as PR Newswire's Chief Executive Officer after almost four years in the role and having served in a wide range of senior executive roles across a number of UBM businesses in a career spanning more than 35 years with UBM. Mr Gregson will return to the UK in the spring to support the development of PR Newswire's international business and to work with David Levin, UBM's Chief Executive Officer, in a UBM-wide role for the remainder of the year.
Mr Chacko has significant experience in highly customer-focused global information distribution businesses, most recently as Chief Commercial Officer of Worldspan, the worldwide travel information, e-commerce and service provider to travel suppliers, agencies and corporations. Mr Chacko was a founding member of the buyout consortium management team that acquired Worldspan in 2003. Until the business's sale in 2007, Mr Chacko was responsible for sales, marketing, customer operations, service and support activities for traditional and online travel agencies, travel suppliers and corporate customers in over 60 countries. Mr Chacko also led the development of Worldspan's next generation of long term supplier agreements.
Prior to Worldspan, Mr Chacko spent more than 13 years with Sabre Holdings, a leading supplier of distribution and technology solutions to the travel industry and Sabre's former owner, AMR Corp. As senior vice president of Emerging Business, Mr Chacko led the development and operation of the company's hotel merchant business in the travel agency channel. Previously, he served in a variety of leadership roles at Sabre, including senior vice president of Marketing for Sabre Travel Network and senior vice president of Global Services, where he helped establish the company's application and IT outsourcing business. Mr Chacko began his career as with System One Corporation before joining American Airlines' Decision Technologies group in 1990.
A native of Malaysia, Mr Chacko was educated in Asia, Europe and the United States, earning a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kansas.
David Levin, Chief Executive Officer of United Business Media said:
"I am very pleased to appoint Ninan Chacko as Chief Executive Officer for PR Newswire and to welcome him to my management team at UBM. Ninan is a proven entrepreneurial business leader who brings to PR Newswire his terrific strategic, commercial and operational understanding of businesses that are all about data distribution and workflow information products. Ninan's wide experience of businesses that take advantage of and develop data technology infrastructure will stand PR Newswire in good stead as it continues its strategy around the distribution, targeting and monitoring of information worldwide. Ninan will also contribute to UBM more widely as we continue to enhance the technology and data mix within our wider business portfolio."
"I would like to pay tribute to Charles Gregson's role as PR Newswire's Chief Executive Officer over the last four years and to his remarkable achievements over his 35 years at UBM. Charles has made a huge contribution to this company in all his roles. I look forward to working with him through the remainder of the year as he supports Ninan in taking on the new role and also works with me personally and UBM more broadly."
- Ends - ContactsMedia Peter Bancroft Director of Communications, UBM E-mail [email protected] Direct telephone +44 20 7921 5961 Analysts/Investors Email [email protected] Direct telephone +44 20 7921 5095 Nigel Wilson +44 20 7921 5019 Andrew Crow +44 20 7921 5940 Notes to Editors
1. About United Business Media Limited
UBM focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.
For more information, go to www.unitedbusinessmedia.com
2. About PR Newswire
PR Newswire Association LLC (www.prnewswire.com) provides electronic distribution, targeting, measurement and broadcast services on behalf of tens of thousands of corporate, government, association, labour, non-profit, and other customers worldwide. Using PR Newswire, these organizations are enabled to reach a variety of critical audiences including the news media, the investment community, government decision-makers, and the general public with their up-to-the-minute messages in text and multimedia form.
Established in 1954, PR Newswire has offices in 14 countries and routinely sends its customers' announcements to outlets in more than 170 countries and in more than 40 languages. Utilizing the latest in communications technology, PR Newswire content is considered a mainstay among news reporters, investors and individuals who seek breaking announcements from the source. PR Newswire's leading services include ProfNet(SM) (https://profnet.prnewswire.com/), eWatchâ„¢ (http://ewatch.prnewswire.com), MEDIAtlasâ„¢ (http://mediatlas.prnewswire.com) , Search Engine Optimization, MediaRoom (www.mediaroom.com)â„¢, MultiVuâ„¢ ( multivu.com) , U.S. Newswire, the pre-eminent policy newswire in the industry, Vintage Filings (www.vfilings.com) , the fastest growing Edgar filing company, and Hispanic PR Wire (www.hispanicprwire.com), LatinClips (www.latinclips.com) and Hispanic Digital Network (www.hdnweb.com), the foremost Hispanic communications services.
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