Al Qasimi and Pansa Confirmed as IPA President and Vice President Elect

Alex Jahanbani November 24, 2020

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Bodour Al Qasimi (Kalimat Group, UAE) confirmed as President-elect of the International Publishers Association, with Karine Pansa (Girassol Brasil Edições, Brazil) confirmed as Vice President-elect at first ever virtual IPA General Assembly.

Following online elections held in November, where all IPA Full Members were able to vote, the IPA confirmed the results of a number of decisions and elections. The full election results are below.

The IPA’s 2020 General Assembly also represented the last for outgoing President, Hugo Setzer who thanked IPA’s members for all their support and encouraged them to continue to work together to overcome the damage of the COVID pandemic on the international book industry.

IPA President, Hugo Setzer said: I have been really privileged to be able to serve you, first as Vice-President and then as President. Since I started as Vice-President four years ago, I said that I wanted to build bridges. Bridges of understanding between different countries, different cultures and ways of thinking. I am sure there is so much more that unites us than the minor issues of difference between us. That is why IPA has remained united for almost 125 years now. Let us continue to work together to be able to emerge stronger from this crisis. You can see Hugo Setzer’s full speech here.

Bodour Al Qasimi (Kalimat Group, UAE) confirmed as President-elect of the International Publishers Association, with Karine Pansa (Girassol Brasil Edições, Brazil) confirmed as Vice President-elect at first ever virtual IPA General Assembly

IPA Vice President, Bodour Al Qasimi added: As the second woman to assume the role [of IPA President] in 124 years, this is an important advancement in our efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. Leading by example puts the IPA on an even firmer footing to make the case for a diverse publishing industry. I plan to work closely with all of our members to help our industry recover from the ravages of 2020 and transition smoothly to a post-COVID world; and to set our essential industry on a bright, new track.

Karine Pansa, IPA Vice President-elect said: It is an honour for me to be elected the next Vice President of the International Publishers Association. I am looking forward to working with our President-elect, Bodour Al Qasimi, to overcome the many challenges created by this difficult year, but also to seize the opportunities it creates to reshape our industry for the future.

Founded in 1896 in Paris by the leading publishers at the time, The International Publishers Association (IPA) is the world’s largest federation of national, regional and specialist publishers’ associations. Our membership comprises 83 organisations from 69 countries in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Americas. Through its members, IPA represents thousands of individual publishers around the world who service markets containing more than 5.6 billion people.

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, IPA represents the interests of the publishing industry in international fora and wherever publishers’ interests are at stake.