A series of new appointments at AFP
YVES GACON, 62, DIRECTOR OF FRENCH BUREAUX, IS APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF DOCUMENTATION AND PUBLISHING. THE NEW DIRECTORATE IS BEING ESTABLISHED TO HELP DRAW VALUE FROM AFP’S ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS. IT WILL BE DEDICATED TO INCREASING MULTIMEDIA DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION, DEVELOPING REGULAR PUBLISHING ACTIVITIES AND SERVING AS A REPOSITORY FOR THE AGENCY’S MEMORY AROUND THE WORLD.
YVES GACON, 62, DIRECTOR OF FRENCH BUREAUX, IS APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF DOCUMENTATION AND PUBLISHING. THE NEW DIRECTORATE IS BEING ESTABLISHED TO HELP DRAW VALUE FROM AFP’S ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS. IT WILL BE DEDICATED TO INCREASING MULTIMEDIA DOCUMENTARY PRODUCTION, DEVELOPING REGULAR PUBLISHING ACTIVITIES AND SERVING AS A REPOSITORY FOR THE AGENCY’S MEMORY AROUND THE WORLD.
Yves Gacon joined AFP in April 1974; he went on to become head of the Bogotá and Rome bureaux. At the headquarters, he served as Editor-in-Chief for France, Central Editor-in-Chief in charge of Europe and Deputy Regional Director for Europe/Africa.
He was appointed Deputy Regional Director Americas in Washington, DC in 1996, and the following year took charge of creating the Regional Directorate for Latin America in Montevideo, which he headed for seven years. Once back in Paris, he was appointed Deputy Director within the News Directorate, then in 2006 Director of French Bureaux.
BERNARD PELLEGRIN, 60, DEPUTY NEWS DIRECTOR, IS APPOINTED DIRECTOR FOR FRANCE; HE IS IN CHARGE OF SETTING UP A SPECIFIC REGION FOR THIS BY 2013.
After working for the French desk of US news agency The Associated Press and for a daily newspaper (Le Matin de Paris), Bernard Pellegrin joined AFP as a political correspondent in 1991. He then joined the Editor-in-Chief department for France in 1993 before leaving for Athens to head the Bureau there. He was appointed head of police and justice desk in 2000, head of the culture and science desk in 2009, and then Deputy News Director in May 2011.
PHILIPPE ONILLON, 50, DEPUTY REGIONAL DIRECTOR EUROPE-AFRICA, IS APPOINTED DEPUTY NEWS DIRECTOR IN REPLACEMENT OF BERNARD PELLEGRIN.
Philippe Onillon joined AFP in 1989 after a stint at Reuters. He served as a journalist for the France desk before joining the bureaux in Lyon and London. From 2000, within the multimedia development directorate, he was involved in designing the first offerings for mobile devices and the Journal de l’Euro, the first web-specific AFP product with video. In 2003, he became head of the Economics desk, then the Economics Department. In 2011, he was commissioned to design new segmented offering l’Essentiel PQR, before being appointed Deputy Regional Director for Europe/Africa.
YVES GACON, BERNARD PELLEGRIN AND PHILIPPE ONILLON WILL TAKE UP THEIR NEW POSITIONS ON JANUARY 14, 2013.
About AFP
AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,260 journalists spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.