Brian Wafawarowa joins IPA executive

Michiel Kolman of Elsevier was elected IPA Vice President in Frankfurt recently while Brian Wafawarowa of Pearson South Africa and Bodour Al Qasimi of Kalimat Publishing Group have joined the IPA Executive Committee (EC). Trasvin Jittidecharak of Silkworm Books, Riccardo Cavallero of Mondadori and Asoke Ghosh of PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd have all been re-appointed to the EC. Simon Littlewood of Random House will replace Bloomsbury’s Richard Charkin on the EC once Mr Charkin takes up office as IPA President in January 2015.

Paul Doda of Elsevier is the new chair of IPA’s Copyright Committee, while Ibrahim El Moallem and Ana María Cabanellas have left the Executive Committee, having completed their terms of office.

IPA President Youngsuk ‘Y.S.’ Chi commented: “I would particularly like to thank Ana María Cabanellas and Ibrahim El Moallem for their service, each over a dozen active years. Ana María has been a powerful speaker for the publishing industry in Latin America. She has led IPA as president (2004-2008) and has drawn attention all over the world on the issues of piracy, free circulation of materials and the role of publishing in emerging countries.

Ibrahim has provided wisdom, insight and leadership to IPA particularly by putting the Arab publishing industry on the world map. Through him we have witnessed the struggles of publishers in these times of momentous changes in this region. It has been an honour to serve with a publisher who has risked his life, livelihood and future by standing up for the values of freedom of expression and freedom to publish.”

IPA is deeply indebted to both Ana María and Ibrahim for their tireless efforts and count on their continued engagement with us on the issues that they care so passionately about.”