Ringier is restructuring its international market set-up for the beginning of the New Year. On the first of January, 2016 Ringier Africa and Asia have implemented various changes further supporting the strong growth of its international markets, with additional personnel and international support.

After a successful 2015 with strong growth across all core businesses and countries on both continents, the accomplishment of important milestones, including the new market entry in Myanmar, Ringier introduced a new international setup which will ensure further growth in quality and efficiency for future expansions.

To facilitate this, Leonard Stiegeler, former General Manager Ringier Nigeria & Head of Ringier West Africa has been appointed to the new position of General Manager Ringier Africa. Former Head of New Business Implementation Ringier AG, Florent de Rocca-Serra will take the new position of General Manager Ringier Asia Pacific.

Jessica List, formerly part of Ringier’s M&A and Business Development team will take the new position of CFO Africa. Jessica Stiles, former Head of Marketing International Markets becomes CMO Africa & Asia.

All of these positions will be reporting to the current CEO Asia & Africa, Robin Lingg, who was elected to the Group Executive Board of Ringier AG in December.

Julian Artopé, current Director Ringier Africa will pursue an MBA by the end of March after four years of building Ringier’s African business on the continent. Mark Slade, former Head of the Digital Marketing Agency RDM in Nigeria, will take over the position as General Manager Ringier Nigeria.

To further support the rising complexity in Ringier’s fast-scaling operations, four dedicated teams were established for each of the African business models: Classifieds, Content, E-Commerce and Digital Marketing. Each will consist of a dedicated team supporting their field in Marketing, Business & Operations and Product Development.

Robin Lingg, CEO Ringier Africa & Asia: “With the high speed and growth of our digital business in Africa and Asia, we were in need of stronger support structures to facilitate further aggressive scaling of our business. Through this evolution of the organisation I’m convinced we’ll be able to further boost and expand our leading market positions in Classifieds, Content, E-Commerce and Digital Marketing across all our markets.

“We have a proven and highly experienced team of which I’m very happy to see so much internally promoted leadership emerge. I also would like to thank Julian Artopé, who has been essential for building this organisation on the ground and has been a key part for the success of Ringier.”

Ringier Africa is the leading diversified digital media company in Africa. It operates more than ten content, classifieds and eCommerce platforms, as well as a digital marketing agency across Africa.

Launched on the continent in 2011, Ringier Africa represents the most recent international expansion of the Swiss media enterprise Ringier, which established successful operations in emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia since 1989.