News Corp Australia's Damian Eales is in line to head INMA following the election of seven executives to its board of directors.

Eales, who is chief operating officer, was elected INMA vice president, and would become president of the global organization in 2019-2021.

Eduardo Garces, general manager of Colombia's El Espectador, has been elected president, becoming the first Spanish Latin American to hold the two-year post in the association's 87-year history.
Having served as INMA president the past two years, Mark Challinor, commercial director of the UK's Trinity Mirror, will serve as immediate past president.

Board members elected to new terms are:

Pit Gottschalk, editor-in-chief, Funke Media, Germany;

Sandy MacLeod, chief operating officer/print, Toronto Star, Canada;

Frank Mahlberg, managing director, Bild/BZ, Axel Springer, Germany;

Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive officer, Telegraph Media Group, UK (affirmed by members after an appointment in late 2016);

Sandy Naude, chief executive of African community media, Independent Media, South Africa;

Maribel Wadsworth Perez, senior vice president and chief transformation officer, Gannett, USA; and

Pam Siddall, president, Advance Central Services, USA.

During the annual business meeting, held in conjunction with the 87th Annual INMA World Congress of News Media in New York, retiring board members cited for their contributions to INMA included Laura Evans of the New York Times, Jim Moroney of the Dallas Morning News, and Harold Grönke of Nordwest Zeitung. Yasmin Namini, formerly of the New York Times, steps down as immediate past president after 14 years of service on the INMA board.

Pictured: News Corp Australia publishing chief operating officer Damian Eales collects one of the group's clutch of INMA 2017 Global Awards from outgoing president Mark Challinor (Photo INMA)