Publishers Australia CEO Alan Sarkissian stands down
Publishers Australia CEO Alan Sarkissian has stepped down for personal reasons, the industry trade body has announced.
Sarkissian was CEO of the organisation – made up of about 120 B2B, custom, consumer and digital publishers – for about two and a half years.
Geoff Hird, chairman of Publishers Australia and associate publisher at Westwick-Farrow, told Mumbrella that the body would begin the hunt for a new CEO shortly and that a decision had not yet been about whether it would be a full time role.
Recent weeks have seen the organisation launch a new website and formalise new staff roles of an event and admin manager and a marketing and communications officer.
Publishers Australia’s Excellence Awards for the best member magazines has also seen growth under Sarkissian. The next awards takes place in November.
Hird said: “Alan has worked tirelessly over the last two-and-a-half years and my fellow board members and I thank him for all his efforts and wish him the best in his personal challenges.”
Sarkissian could not be reached by phone, but in a press release he said: “I have enjoyed the role and the people very much and will always have fond memories. I wish the members and team at Publishers Australia all the very best and will stay in touch at forthcoming events and the awards,” said Alan Sarkissian.
Although Publishers Australia has many publisher members, Australia’s biggest players including ACP, News Magazines and Pacific Magazines do not support it. Their body – Magazine Publishers Australia saw ACP resign several months ago, and its activities have been wound down.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Alan Sarkissian (CEO) and Chris Tchakalian (previous ED) have done an amazing job at shaping and growing Publishers Australia as well as helping specialist publishers over the years. Best of Luck Alan.
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Alan Sarkissian fiiled huge shoes when Chris left with his passion to look after small publishers Australia wide and along with his larger than life personality ….. will be sorely missed. He will be successful with whatever he does next,but good luck to his successor I say.
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