PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

HBO steps up to CASBAA Board

Marcel Fenez, Chairman of the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) has announced that Jonathan Spink, the CEO of Home Box Office Asia, has been elected as a Director of the Association for a two-year term. Re-elected to the CASBAA Board of Directors 2005 for two-year terms are Peter Jackson, CEO AsiaSat (CASBAA Treasurer) and William Pfeiffer, CEO Celestial Pictures.
Remaining on the CASBAA Board of Directors 2005 for the second year of their two-year terms office are Michelle Guthrie, CEO Star Group, Francois Theron, COO of cable operator UBC of Thailand, Alexander Brown, President & CEO of CNBC Asia, Steve Marcopoto, President of Turner International Asia Pacific and Richard Cunningham Senior Vice President of MTV Networks Asia Pacific. Neville Meijers, EVP and MD Discovery Networks Asia stepped down from the CASBAA Board after two-years in office.
During the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association, held in Singapore on December 3rd, 2004, the following were elected by the general membership to the CASBAA Council of Governors, the Association’s most senior group: Nic van Zwanenberg of BBC World, William Pfeiffer of Celestial Pictures, Jeanne Marie Gescher of Claydon Gescher Associates, Simon Dewhurst of CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, Alexander Brown of CNBC Asia, Rik Dovey of ESPN STAR Sports, Nigel Francis of Herbert Smith, PJ Wong of iMedia House, Ted McFarland of International Launch Services, Thierry Raymaekers of Irdeto Access, Forrest Didier of Nielsen Media Research, Jeanette Chan of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Hugh Stephens of Time Warner, Ian Carroll of Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific, Terry Mak of TVBI and Karl Rossiter of Zieland Productions.

AFTRS New Cinematography Lecturer

Acclaimed cinematographer, Erika Addis, has taken up the post as Cinematography Lecturer for the AFTRS Cinematography Department.
Erika has had a long and successful career in the areas of drama and documentary. She has twice been a student at AFTRS, graduating as a Cinematography student in 1980, and in 2001 completing an MA(Hons) in Documentary and Screen Studies.
During her 25-year-career Erika has had considerable teaching experience, both at AFTRS and other institutions. Erika has won awards for her work on Serious Undertakings, My Life Without Steve and The Nights Belong to the Novelist.

Poon Now Star Communications VP

STAR Group Limited has announced the promotion of Jannie Poon to Senior Vice President. She reports to Michelle Guthrie, Chief Executive Officer of STAR. Poon will continue to head up STAR's corporate communications division and serve as the company's chief press officer.
Announcing the appointment, Michelle Guthrie said, "Jannie's knowledge and experience in the media industry in Asia are valuable assets to the company. The promotion is a recognition of her contribution and I expect she will play a more important role as the company continues to expand and grow in the region."
Poon, who moves up from Vice President of STAR, joined STAR in 1995 as Corporate Affairs Manager. She has 15 years of experience in the communications field.

First Staff Appointments for ABC2

The new ABC digital channel ABC New Media and Digital Services has appointed the first new staff to ABC2, the ABC’s digital television channel to be launched in March next year.
Peter Sachs has been appointed to the position of Programmer/Scheduler for ABC2 and will be based in the ABC’s Ultimo offices in Sydney from 1 November. Peter is currently the Scheduler at SBS Television’s Network Programming Branch.
Carol Saab will also join ABC2 as Scheduling/Marketing Officer, commencing 18 October and based at Ultimo. Carol brings with her scheduling and presentation experience from her time at Foxtel and at BSkyB in the UK. Peter and Carol will work along side several existing ABC staff to prepare for the March launch of the new channel. ABC2 will feature a comprehensive and quality mixture of children's, documentary, arts, international and regional news programming.
The new channel will be available to those with free to air digital television receivers or as a free channel through subscription television. An innovative component of ABC2 will be the introduction of broadband Internet content on television.

Stambaugh MD for Technicolor Thailand

Paul Stambaugh has taken up his new post as Managing Director of Technicolor Thailand. Fresh from Los Angles, Paul has spent over thirty-nine years in the motion picture, television film and video processing business.
His early training included in photography at LA Trade Technical School and later studies in merging technologies, television and film principles at the University of Southern California set the backbone for his career which he began as a technician in a film lab.
Later Paul moved on to own and manage United Color Lab (for 15 years), a film and video laboratory with one hundred ten employees and then for nine years, owned Images on Video, a film and industrial video production and post production facility.
He then spent three years as director of sales and then two years as manager of CFI film laboratory where he built the film preservation department managing 350 employees. After Technicolor acquired the company, Paul served as Vice President of Technicolor/CFI film preservation and Imaging Group.
Paul became managing director of Technicolor (Thailand) in 2004 after Technicolor’s acquisition of Cinecolor Lab.
Stambaugh is a member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists, the
Society of motion Picture and Television Engineers and 2nd Vice President
of the Association of Cinema and Video Laboratories. Paul and his wife
Janet have two children.

Yip on Front Porch for Asia

Digital asset management developer Front Porch Digital, Inc., soon to be known as Incentra Solutions, Inc., has announced it has made a strategic hire to accelerate its expansion into the Asia Pacific market. Former Sony Product Manager Vincent Yip has joined the company to provide sales engineering and system delivery expertise for partners and customers throughout the region. Based in Hong Kong, Yip brings seven years of broadcast operations experience while working at Star TV and four years of technical sales working for Sony.
With 20 customers, Front Porch Digital is the market share leader in video storage and archive management in the Asia-Pacific region. The Company has captured this position by building a strong partner network of resellers and system integrators throughout the region. Front Porch now sees a number of opportunities to build on this base and it is committed to expanding its market share lead in Asia. Yip's deep technical experience, market knowledge and industry relationships can help the Company achieve that goal. He will report to Dominique Bergeret, Regional Sales Manager for Asia Pacific Market, who will continue to drive all sales and partner activities throughout the region.

DK-Technologies Appoints Lars Beyer

DK-Technologies has boosted its international sales team with the appointment of Lars Beyer, who joins the company as sales manager with primary responsibility for Europe and Asia.
Beyer, 39, has nearly 20 years experience of the audio and broadcast industries having previously held senior sales and project management positions at NTP Elektronik and AEQ. His particular field of expertise includes metering, routers and mixers and ISDN communications equipment. He is also experienced in business economics, business strategy and law.

New Cousins for AMtech

Furthering its expansion and commitment to the Australia/New Zealand region, AMtech Australia, leading supplier of broadcasting technology to the Broadcast Television, Production and Post Production industries, today announced Ed Cousins as their new Customer Support Engineer based in the AMtech Sydney office. Cousins will focus primarily on pre and post sales engineering support across all products represented by AMtech and will help compliment the work being done by Ron Hamel and his engineering team.
Cousins, an industry veteran, joins AMtech with over twenty years of experience in the broadcast industry across engineering, sales and customer support with industry heavyweights including Hewlett Packard, Ampex, Galaxy, Tektronix, Comsyst and GenCom Technology.
Cousins said, “I am delighted to be given the opportunity to join AMtech, the leading broadcast technology supplier in Australia and New Zealand. What particularly impresses me is AMtech’s customer base and level of support it gives its clients across the board.”
AMtech Managing Director Phil Gardiner commented “Ed Cousins is an excellent addition to AMtech and brings great knowledge and expertise with him. Ed will significantly strengthen our team and improve our overall sales, service and support to clients. Ed’s appointment is in line with our continuing commitment of service and support to our customers in the Australia/New Zealand region.”

NEW CEO
FOR AAV

The Chief Executive of AAV Limited, Ted Gregory, after some thirty years with AAV, has announced he will step down from the role in early 2005.
The Chairman of AAV Limited, Bob Mansfield announced that Gary Hackett, Managing Director of AAV's Staging Connections Division would succeed Ted as CEO, and be appointed a Director of AAV.
Mr Mansfield said "The AAV Limited Board, in considering the future leadership needs and direction of the company, believes the appointment of Gary Hackett, with the continuing support of his senior management team including AAV's Finance Director, Ross Cartledge and Chief Operating Officer, Peter Colby, will provide the leadership necessary to successfully further drive development and growth of the AAV Group.”
Ted Gregory will remain on the AAV Limited Board as a Non-Executive Director and act as an ongoing consultant following his retirement as CEO.
According to Gregory, "I felt that the time was right for change and the hand over to an appropriate successor. In my view, Gary is the ideal person to take the AAV group into its next phase of development. I have enjoyed immensely my time at AAV and the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to where the company is today.
“My key objective over the next six months is to ensure an orderly transition so Gary and his management team can plan and take ownership of the business strategy and budget for the new financial year commencing on 1 January 2005."
Gary Hackett said "I am looking forward to the challenge of driving AAV into the next phase of its development. We have an unrivalled range of services within the AAV group of companies and leveraging these services will provide exciting opportunities for building future shareholder value."

TVNZ APPOINTS SENIOR PROGRAMME SCHEDULERS

TVNZ today announced the key strategic appointments of Jane Wilson and Liz Fraser as the public television broadcaster’s new Senior Programme Schedulers.
Jane Wilson will take responsibility for scheduling local content and Liz Fraser will be responsible for international content scheduling.
Jane is currently the Senior Commissioner, Popular Factual and Liz is Marketing Manager TV ONE.
TVNZ’s General Manager Programming, Annemarie Duff said, ” I’m delighted that both Jane and Liz have agreed to take on these roles. They bring extensive experience across a broad range of television production and marketing disciplines and will complement each other superbly”.
Jane brings strong public service experience to her role as Senior Programme Scheduler for local programmes, which will help TVNZ meet its Charter obligations. In her role as Deputy Editor, UK Horizons, with the BBC, she was responsible for developing programme and schedule ideas as well as commissioning and executive producing among other programmes: Ripley’s Believe it or Not; Pitch Fever and An Evening with Jerry Springer.
After working as Marketing Manager for first TV2 and then TV ONE, Liz Fraser brings a strong understanding of the two TVNZ channel brands and an appreciation of how they need to operate complementarily. She has significant commercial acumen with an extensive background in sales and her work in research in both programming and on the Charter has given her a strong understanding of TVNZ audiences.
"Jane’s public broadcasting experience will be hugely valuable at this time in TVNZ as we schedule for the Charter, and Liz has an extensive commercial background, so it’s a great fit. The great strength of these appointments is that Jane and Liz have complementary skills that can only enrich our on air offerings for viewers”, said Duff.

Donald McGauchie Elected Telstra Chairman

The Board of Telstra Corporation Limited has announced that Mr Donald McGauchie AO has been elected Chairman of the Company with immediate effect.
Mr McGauchie's election by the Board of the Company follows a 3-month search process involving the executive search firm Spencer Stuart, with consideration of internal and external candidates for the position.
The Company's majority shareholder, the Commonwealth Government was consulted on the decision and raised no objections.
Mr John Ralph AC has stepped down from his role as interim Chairman. The Board thanked Mr Ralph for his contribution, in particular, for his role in chairing the selection process for the new Chairman.
Mr McGauchie has been a non-executive Director of the company since 1998 and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Telstra Country Wide since 2000.
Mr McGauchie's extensive knowledge of the core operation of the Company will enable a rapid and smooth transition. The Board is delighted that Mr McGauchie has assumed this role and is united in its support of his Chairmanship.
Mr McGauchie holds a number of other non-executive Directorships and will reduce these to ensure that he is able to dedicate sufficient time to this position.
Mr McGauchie said: "I look forward to working with the Board and the CEO Ziggy Switkowski to implement the strategic direction outlined in the Board's recent capital management statement.
"Telstra has reached an important phase in its development - our great challenge now is to deliver shareholder value," he said.

TVNZ's Duff Now GM Programming

Stephen Smith, Assistant CEO/Head of Content announced the appointment today of a new role of General Manager Programming for TVNZ. The successful applicant is Annemarie Duff, TVNZ’s Marketing Director. In addition to the substantial experience and knowledge she has from this role, Annemarie’s television experience spans 20 years working in television at ITV in the UK, Channel 7 in Australia and Canwest NZ where she held various positions including Director of Sales and Head of Communications. "Annemarie has contributed immensely to the success and implementation of TVNZ’s direction as New Zealand’s television public broadcaster. Her understanding of broadcasting and TVNZ in particular will be invaluable to shaping the content TVNZ provides New Zealanders,” said Stephen Smith.
The new role is in line with changes in the Content Department and will ensure TVNZ has the right structure, capability and accountability to increase the quality and quantity of NZ content on air.

Edgar's Discreet Departure

Dave Edgar has finished in capacity of Regional Manager for Discreet to return to Future Reality to "do some new and exciting things".
His new contact details are:
david@future.com.au
Future Reality
6/42 New Street Ringwood,
Vic 3134 Melbourne. Australia
Phone: +61 3 9870 8655
Fax: +61 3 9879 4755
Mobile: +61 41 855 3738
http://www.future.com.au/

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