Managing director of IPC Connect, Evelyn Webster, has been promoted to chief executive of IPC Media, replacing Sylvia Auton.
Webster currently heads up the women’s weekly division, IPC Connect, and will take over chief executive duties from Auton on 1 January.
Auton, who joined IPC in 1977 and was appointed chief executive in 2003, will remain executive vice president of IPC’s parent company Time Inc and chairman of IPC Media, relocating to New York.
Auton said: ‘Over these last five years the board has successfully steered IPC from being a world class magazine publisher to a world class content creator and I have the utmost confidence that with Evelyn at the helm, the company will continue to flourish and grow.
‘Although my US responsibilities mean that I will be moving to New York, I will be returning to the UK regularly. IPC remains close to my heart and I am looking forward to continuing to work with Evelyn and the superbly talented IPC Media board to take this company to even greater heights.”
Webster has been with IPC since 1992, when she joined as a graduate trainee. She rapidly worked her way up the company through circulation and marketing departments to become a publisher within the then IPC Specialist Group.
In 2003 she was appointed to the IPC board as managing director of IPC Country & Leisure Media (now IPC Inspire), taking on her most recent role of managing director of IPC Connect in March 2004, playing a key role in the £18m launch of fashion weekly Look in 2007.
Webster said: ‘IPC is a fantastic company with great brands, great people and great creativity and I am absolutely thrilled to be taking over as its CEO. I have been fortunate enough to work with Sylvia for a number of years and she will be a hard act to follow. However, I’m looking forward to working with her and the rest of the IPC board to continue to build upon the company’s success.”
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