[FA Worldmusic] NEW WOMEX GENERAL DIRECTOR: GERALD SELIGMAN OTHER CHANGES ANNOUNCED

Mon Jan 8 11:47:12 EST 2007

9 January 2007. WOMEX announces a major restructuring, and the first
directorial change in ten years. Christoph Borkowsky will be stepping
down as day-to-day director of WOMEX to work more closely with his two
other companies, Piranha Musik and Piranha Events. While he will still
maintain an active oversight, Gerald Seligman will be assuming
the new role of WOMEX General Director.

"When I took over from WOMEX Founding Director Ben Mandelson in 1997,"
says Christoph Borkowsky, "I was the lucky guy who could just ride the
wave of an emerging event. Ten years later we see the soundtrack of
globalisation still becoming more important by the day, and WOMEX
changing from nomad to settler, from event to institution, from
single woman to mother of offsprings. This means that the overall
conditions for WOMEX have become much more complex as well." Regarding
the new environment, Christoph added, "Each football team needs a new
coach from time to time, WOMEX as well. I'm most happy that Gerald is
taking over. He's got the right skills, experience -- and respect in
the community that the job requires. But I think he is in for a much
harder ride than I had a decade ago. Both the whole operation itself
as well as the surrounding field for WOMEX are more challenging now."

Gerald Seligman came to WOMEX in January 2006 after over 20 years in
the music business. He began his career as a journalist and radio
programmer based in New York, before turning to freelance production.
After moving to Brazil in 1990, he worked first for Polygram (now
Universal), then EMI, which soon moved him to London to take over
international direction of its 43-country strategic marketing
division. While there he created Hemisphere, the well-respected world
music label that saw over 2 million sales during his tenure. As a
Grammy-nominated producer and compiler, he has delivered over 120 CDs
and is a frequent international conference speaker and consultant.

"I was involved with WOMEX from its second year," says Gerald, "always
attending, chairing countless conference sessions, I was on its first
jury, I've even travelled for WOMEX. WOMEX is unique in the world of
music trade fairs and the only one I know of that grew organically
from a community itself. It wasn't imposed from outside by a company
wanting to fill a commercial niche. There was a need and Christoph and
his indispensable partner Ben Mandelson stepped up to fill it,
providing the kind of vision and guidance that only insiders could,"
Gerald says. "It's an honour to take over WOMEX direction, if a bit
intimidating in terms of continuing their good work."

Having suffered through seven reorganisations in his ten years in the
majors, he emphasises the need for continuity not radical change.
"A new director brings new ideas, of course, but he should always
tread carefully," he says. "WOMEX grew from 250 to 2,500 delegates in
only a dozen years. It's remarkable how much foresight Christoph and
Ben had when they developed the overall WOMEX philosophy and
structure, amazing how durable it was." But a new Director will
inevitably have new ideas about how an event and company can adapt to
a changing marketplace. And the challenges that come with adapting to
WOMEX's growth mean special effort has to be expended to stay true to
the event's original aims. "There is always room for some evolution.
One area of special interest will be in working more closely with our
local production partners to assure that we raise overall standards
and maintain them." And it is in the area of new features and new
partnerships that Gerald plans the most innovation. "If you've looked
at our new Offspring projects, you'll see that we're working to forge
new partnerships throughout the world. We get so many requests to co-
sponsor events and even to move WOMEX to new regions of the world. But
the best solution is to find the right partners and develop new events
jointly. Our first was PORTO MUSICAL in Recife, Brazil, and it was so
successful that the Brazilian Ministry of Culture under Gilberto Gil
entered into the partnership after only two editions to vastly expand
it. We're now developing ideas for possible events in the Caribbean,
in Africa and the Asian market. There's so much potential here. Plus
we're also working on the creation of a WOMEX Foundation and some
actual projects other than events, as in the digital archiving project
DISMARC, an African digital market study with Norway's Artspages, and
so much more besides."  Many of these can be read about on the WOMEX
website soon and in the 2006 WOMEX Guide.

As part of a general restructuring, WOMEX announces other additions
and changes.  Evelyn Bardow is now Director of Production & Special
Projects and will be working with Gerald on WOMEX Offspring projects.
To complete the team, Christine Semba, WOMEX's tireless Director of
Content & Programmes, will be joined by Alex Walter as Content & Pro-
grammes Manager, Software Engineer Alexander Vipach now works fulltime
with WOMEX IT Director Stephan Siedler, and Anna Pvtzsch, Media &
Communications Manager, will be taking a maternity leave in Feburary
with Nisha Anders replacing her temporarily for the months to come.

For more information or requests for interviews, please contact Anna
Pvtzsch at media at womex.com

Best regards from your WOMEX team in Berlin...

www.womex.com
tel +49 30 318 614 30

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