New EBU Executive Board Elected

Nine public service media executives from across Europe will join President Tony Hall (BBC) and Vice-President Delphine Ernotte Cunci (France Televisions) on the Board.

The Executive Board was elected by Members at the EBU’s General Assembly in Geneva. The Board is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the EBU’s strategy and policies.

Ibrahim Eren, Marcello Foa, Giacomo Ghisani, Sergei Pavlov and Gonçalo Reis all join the Executive Board for the first time.

Ibrahim Eren has been Director General of Turkish Radio Television (TRT) since July 2017 while Marcello Foa was appointed President of Radio televisione Italiana (Rai) earlier this year.

Giacomo Ghisani is the Acting Director General of Radio Vaticana; Sergei Pavlov is Director of International Relations and member of the Board of Directors for Channel One Russia and Goncalo Reis has been President of the Board and CEO of Radio Television Portugal (RTP) since 2015.

Cilla Benko (SR), Petr Dvorak (CT), Ulrich Wilhelm (ARD/BR) and Gilles Marchand (SRG SSR) were all re-elected to serve a new term on the Board.

Incoming President Tony Hall said: “I welcome this new EBU Executive Board. Public service media has never been more important or more needed.  As we begin our EBU Presidency in January, Delphine Ernotte Cunci and I look forward to working closely with the new Board and the EBU Director General Noel Curran, as well as with all EBU Members and staff.

“It’s a time of great excitement and opportunity in global media. And I firmly believe that the time for public service media has come – with brilliant local content, impartial news and a universal mission that brings us all together.

“Through working together I believe that EBU Members can deliver even more for our audiences, and I’m excited about working with the new Executive Board to deliver that ambition over the two years ahead.”

The Assembly warmly thanked outgoing Board members together with President Jean-Paul Philippot (RTBF) who has served as President of the EBU for the last ten years and Monica Maggioni (Rai) who has been Vice-President since 2015.

The Assembly also approved the application of the Israeli public service broadcaster (IPBC) for full membership of the EBU.―BCS Bureau