WAN-IFRA names Thomas Jacob chief operating officer

"Thomas brings a deep knowledge of the different facets of the news publishing industry and I believe this new role will take advantage of his talents and experience," said 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."

Years of experience

Jacob has over 28 years of experience in media. He began his career as a rookie engineer with Mathrubhumi, a 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, publisher of Daily Mail and Metro in the 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 high 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 honour 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.