Larry Kilman had been Director of Communications at the World Association of Newspapers before being appointed Secretary General of the French association in June 2014, overseeing the not-for-profit advocacy branch of WAN-IFRA.
Thanks to an outstanding commitment to advocating for press freedom worldwide during the past 18 years, Mr Kilman developed a comprehensive strategy and implemented day-to-day operations that helped WAN-IFRA to reach a wider audience and engage in new areas, especially media development. His role in the merger of WAN and IFRA in 2009 contributed significantly to the sound and seamless integration of both the technical and business services and the general interest mission of the organisation, says WAN-IFRA.
“We thank Larry Kilman for his remarkable and longstanding commitment to the organisation and its global community of publishers and editors, and respect his desire for a change. Larry is a remarkable advocate for press freedom, relentlessly standing up to promote and defend the values of a free, independent press worldwide. He initiated and maintained an impressive network of friends and press freedom supporters that helped WAN-IFRA to reach its current status as the irreplaceable partner for thousands of media companies and institutions worldwide. We wish him every success with his new professional goals,” said Vincent Peyrègne, Chief Executive Officer, who takes over the lead for communications and general coordination of the not-for-profit advocacy branch of WAN-IFRA.
“After 18 years of highly intensive involvement, including times of challenge at WAN-IFRA during the change in top management in 2009, I would like to build on Larry’s achievements in the area of media development. The situation he leaves us in is very favourable: WAN-IFRA is moving forward on an excellent course with an established and renewed commitment of major international donors and strong support from individual publishers and association members.”
Larry Kilman joined WAN-IFRA in 1998 as Director of Communications and previously worked as a journalist for more than 20 years in Asia, Europe and the United States, primarily with The Associated Press, Radio Free Europe and Agence France-Presse. He was also an economics editor for the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. He is a frequent conference speaker and moderator and has contributed to a wide variety of private sector, civil society, inter-governmental and governmental events. He was responsible for WAN-IFRA's annual presentation on world press trends, and has spoken or moderated for UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day conferences and other UNESCO media-focused events, the International Press Institute's annual conference, the Africa Media Leaders Forum, and for dozens of conferences organised by news media associations in Brazil, Spain, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Korea, Turkey and many other countries.
