Staff & Consultants

From 2003 to 2011, he was the Director of the World Editors Forum (WEF), the organisation for editors within the World Association of Newspapers (today merged with IFRA). From 1996 to 2002 he headed the World Media Live, developed for news media in seven different languages. The World Media Live was a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal in charge of international websites (Cannes Film Festival, Tour de France…). From 1989 to 2001, he served as CEO of the World Media Network, a press syndicate gathering major newspapers around the globe (El Pais, La Stampa, Libération, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Standard, Al Ahram, An Nahar, Yomiuri Shimbun, Folha de S. Paulo, La Nacion…). Formerly, Bertrand was a lecturer at the «Institut d’Etudes Politiques » in Paris.

John specializes in new media strategies and how to integrate them into traditional media frameworks. He worked for five years at the World Editors Forum (within WAN) as Deputy Director before earning an MBA from IE Business School in Madrid where he specialized in entrepreneurship and marketing. Currently, John is gaining experience in the e-commerce industry and will use the combination of his new media and e-commerce knowledge when consulting for GEN.

Felix is responsible for the innovative and economic development of apps for tablet-pcs and smartphones, within the newspaper group Hamburg of Axel Springer. In his former position as managing editor he developed the multimedia Newsroom for the Hamburger Abendblatt – one of the most modern newsrooms in Europe. Furthermore, he managed projects like "Mein Quartier" – a hyperlocal online platform, where up to 20 local journalists report daily from districts where they live. Since May 2011 "Mein Quartier" is also available as an app for iPhone.

David Brewer, Consultant

David is a media strategy consultant specialising in newsroom convergence and delivering content to multiple platforms. He also offers training in online and social media. David is the former launch managing editor for BBC News Online, moved to CNN to set up and launch CNN.com EMEA and CNN Arabic, and was the consultant for the launch of Al Jazeera English. He is currently working on newsroom convergence projects in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the CIS. He has worked as a journalist and manager in print, radio, TV and online and was a political editor at the BBC.

Andrew is an independent media consultant specialising in business and brand strategy across print, broadcast and digital platforms. Andrew has over 20 years media and communications experience with previous positions including Group Strategy Director at The Mirror Group, Strategy director at News International and European Strategic Planning Director at McCann Erickson Advertising. His consultancy services include business and brand strategy development, platform extensions and media convergence strategies.

Former web editor for french online newspapers -he has launched 20minutes.fr-, Jean-Pierre masters every audience building tools & innovations. Official blogger for ZDNet & Viadeo, he co-founded LeWebLab.com web agency. Specialized in online and new media strategy, his philosophy is to share best practices and use most standards tools to reach the media 2.0 leve

Robb Montgomery, Consultant (USA-Germany)

Robb is the CEO and founder of Visual Editors. He has worked as an independent media development professional since 2005 with top media houses in Europe, North America and the Middle East to develop new prototypes for news products and to design multimedia and cross platform newsrooms. He also produces training that grows visual and digital literacy within organizations. Robb is based in Berlin and Chicago and has redesigned several newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times and San Francisco Examiner. He previously worked as an editor for the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.