The Society Of Publishers In Asia Elects Coconuts Media Ceo Byron Perry As New Chairman And Announces 2021 Board

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The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA), a Hong Kong- based not-for-profit organization dedicated to pursuing excellence in journalism, has announced the election of Byron Perry, the founder and CEO of Coconuts Media, as its new Chairman at its 38th Annual General Meeting.

Perry, based in Singapore, is the first SOPA Chairperson to be based outside of Hong Kong. He will aim to drive more regional membership and presence for the organization in Southeast Asia.

"I am honored to be the new Chairman of SOPA and look forward to helping promote quality and best-practices in journalism and a thriving media industry across Asia," said Mr. Perry. “I also look forward to working with SOPA’s Board and members to achieve our goals for the coming year, including organizing successful awards and driving membership growth.”

Other new appointments include Jasper Chung of The New York Times as the new Honorary Treasurer, Christine Wong of Bloomberg Media as Honorary Secretary. Newly- elected board members include Ling Sze Gan of Thomson Reuters and Jean Locufier of the Financial Times. An executive to be determined from Dow Jones will also serve on the 2021 board. The full list of SOPA’s 2021-2022 Board can be found below.

In addition, the list of Editorial Committee members helping to oversee the SOPA 2021 Awards can be found here. The Editorial Committee is led by Madeleine Lim, Senior Executive Editor, Asia Pacific Bloomberg News.

SOPA highlights during the past year include:
The SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence presented 91 awards for outstanding journalism at its annual ceremony and was livestreamed for the first time since it was established in 1999. It received over 750 entries across 17 wide ranging categories.

SOPA continued to deliver in-depth panel sessions and discussions through a series of Media Insider webinars, focusing on exclusive interviews with the winners of the SOPA 2020 Editorial Awards. This included winning entries in the Excellence in BusinessReporting category and journalists who explored South East Asian Stories and Collaborative Journalism.

SOPA’s 2021-2022 Board

Chair
Mr. Byron Perry (Founder & CEO, Coconuts Media)
 Honorary Treasurer
Mr. Jasper Chung (Head of Corporate Development, APAC, The New York Times)
 Honorary Secretary
Ms. Christine Wong (Bloomberg Media)
Desiree Au (Publisher, Vogue Hong Kong)
Barrett Bingley (Director, Media Sales, North Asia and Asia Initiatives The Economist Group)
Ling Sze Gan (Vice President, Head of Sales & Revenue of Editorial Content & Data Solutions, Thomson Reuters)
Adrian Lee (SVP, Group Marketing & Events, South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd) Jean Locufier (Regional Head of Customer Success, Asia Pacific, Financial Times)

The SOPA 2021 Editorial Awards has begun their call for submissions. Deadline is Thursday Feb 25, 2021. More info can be found at www.sopawards.com.

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