But the new Vice President-elect will have raised a few eyebrows, not because Karine Pansa is not ideal for the job, but because it means that for the first time in the IPA’s history both the President and Vice President will be women.
The election of International Publishers Association Vice President Bodour Al Qasimi to the top job, starting January 2021, will have surprised no-one. The step up from vice president to president has long been a formality.
But the new Vice President-elect will have raised a few eyebrows, not because Karine Pansa is not ideal for the job, but because it means that for the first time in the IPA’s history both the President and Vice President will be women. And in fact this is only the second time a women has held the presidency of the IPA.
The full press release from the IPA can be read here, and on Vimeo the acceptance speech from Al Qasimi here and the in-advance parting speech from current IPA President Hugo Setzer can be found on Vimeo here.
For my part, I’m going to let the dust settle on the main news and then return here in a few days with my own thoughts on what this means for global publishing and what we might expect from the IPA under Al Qasimi’s leadership.
