Nine women are among the 12 new members elected to WAN-Ifra’s supervisory board, which is headed by Ringier media head Ladina Heimgartner.

Their election follows the group’s annual meeting at the start of its World News Media Congress in Marseille, France, on Monday.

Heimgartner, who is head of media at Ringier AG and chief executive of Ringier Media Switzerland, will serve a second two-year term as president, while Mediahuis chief operating officer Paul Verwilt was also re-elected as treasurer.

The 12 new members of the supervisory board are:

-Yulia Petrossian Boyle (Armenia), founder and director of YPB Global;

-Coralie Vrancken, chief executive of the Le Soir division, representing lapresse.be (Belgium);

-Zoran Turković, chief executive of 24sata Hrvatska, representing HUDI Croatian Association of Digital Publishers (Croatia);

-Petra Fonda, chief executive of BurdaMedia Extra, representing Unie Vydavatelu (Czech Republic);

-Stine Carsten Kendal, chief executive of Dagbladet Information, representing Danske Medier (Denmark);

-Marc Feuillée, director general of Groupe Le Figaro, representing Alliance de la Presse d’Information Générale (France);

-Shailesh Gupta, director of Jagran Prakashan, representing the Indian Newspaper Society (India);

-Deirdre Veldon, group managing director of the Irish Times, representing News Media Europe;

-Lene Eltvik Vinfeld, organisation & communications director at TV2 and vice president of MBL (Norway);

-Catarina Carvalho, founder and editor of Mensagem de Lisboa, representing Associação Portuguesa de Imprensa (Portugal);

-Minette Ferreira, chief executive of the Media24 media division, representing consumer lifestyle and special interest media (South Africa);

-Irene Lanzaco (Spain), chair of the committee of directors of WAN-Ifra member associations and director general of Asociación de Medios de Información.

Two members – Minette Ferreira and Irene Lanzaco ­– have been included in the executive board, and the mandate of Sandy Prieto-Romualdez (Philippines) renewed.

Ladina Heimgartner said the board was being renewed at a pivotal moment: “Artificial intelligence is reshaping our industry faster than anyone predicted, bringing real challenges to press freedom and journalism, but also extraordinary new possibilities.

“I am energised to take on a second mandate alongside these leaders, and determined that we navigate this transformation with both boldness and responsibility.”

Pictured from left: Irene Lanzaco, Coralie Vrancken, Yulia Petrossian Boyle, Ladina Heimgartner, Stine Carsten Kendal and WAN-Ifra vice president Mariam Mammen Mathew, who heads Manorama Online, India