Mario Lubetkin has been IPS Director General since 2002. Attracted by the News Agency’s original coverage of human rights, environment and development issues, he joined IPS as a journalist in 1979 at the Headquarters in Rome. He later returned to his native Uruguay as a correspondent and served as Regional Director for Latin America for seven years, before being appointed Director General.

Susan Alexander is the Director of Plans and Programmes for IPS, and since January 2007 is also the Management Co-ordinator. She works with global and regional staff to design, implement and report on IPS projects. She is also responsible for the annual, multi-year and strategic plans, reports and evaluations for the Core Donor group. As Management Co-ordinator she convenes the monthly meetings of the global IPS management team and supports efforts across sectors and regions to implement agreed upon goals and plans.

Sanjay Suri has been chief editor since December 2009. He was earlier editor for the Europe and Mediterranean region since 2002. His responsibilities through this period included coverage of the Iraq invasion and the conditions there since then. Some of the other major developments covered include the Lebanon war and the war and continuing conflicts in the Middle East. He has also written for IPS through the period on issues of rights and development.

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Diana Cariboni has been the IPS Associate Editor in Chief since June 2010 and the Regional Editor of IPS Latin America since March 2003. Working together with the Editor in Chief, she is responsible for the content of the IPS World Service and overall journalistic production, particularly in Spanish.

Since March 2007, she has served as editor of the award-winning Tierramérica, a weekly service about the environment and sustainable development published by more than 20 Latin American newspapers. She led the teams that reported from the Copenhagen and Cancun climate change negotiations in 2009 and 2010.

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Peter Dhondt is a member of the IPS management team since 2007 and is Director of Projects since 2010. Together with global and regional staff, he drafts project proposals, manages relations with donors and project partners, monitors implementation and oversees reporting. He is also involved in marketing and other fundraising activities.

Peter started with IPS in 1996 as a journalist and editor for the Dutch service, which he continues to coordinate.

He studied communication sciences in Leuven (Belgium) and European Studies in Aachen (Germany). He did academic research on international communication at the University of Leuven, worked as a journalist and head of the publications department for the Belgian NGO 11.11.11 and as a political lobbyist for the German NGO Misereor. Peter lives with his family in Leuven (Belgium)

Cecilia has a degree in Economy from the University of Uruguay, and is post graduated in Internal Audit. She is a Certified Public Accountant in Uruguay and a member of IFAC ( International Federation of Accountants).

She has experience in administrative work with local and international non profit organisations, and has also worked as External Auditor for several projects funded by UNDP, UE, and the government of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

She joined IPS in 2007.- She is in charge of updating and controlling the global budgets, financial reports and analysis and annual forecast of IPS worldwide.

Giovanni Spinelli, born in 1942, is an Italian journalist. In the 1960s he was the national representative of Italian NGOs and worked as a political reporter. From 1979 to 1985 he served as Mayor of the Municipality of Historic Central Rome, and in 1980, UNFPA commissioned him to organise the First World Conference of Mayors in Rome. He also worked as a consultant for UNESCO on the creation of a Francophone African news agency.

Baher Kamal is currently the IPS Director General’s Advisor for Middle East and North Africa and Director of IPS’s Arabic Services.

Kamal is an Egyptian born, Spanish national, with over 40 years of professional experience as a journalist — from reporter to special envoy to chief editor of national dailies and an international news agency.

Paula Fray has worked in media for over 22 years ­ the last four in the field of media training and development. She is currently the Regional Director for IPS Africa, with management responsibilities for the news service and related media and communication projects in Africa.

Joaquín Costanzo was born in Uruguay, is married and has three children. In 1980 he began working as a journalist for different newspapers, radios, and TV stations in his country. He was Chief of Political and Society Information of La República and La Hora newspapers; Director of the Information Department of Radio Nacional; Director of News Programs of the TV station TevéCiudad; and Editor-in-Chief of the Uruguayan news agency Pressur.

A Philippine national, Johanna graduated with a journalism degree from the University of the Philippines, magna cum laude, and has covered the diplomatic and political beats in her country. She joined IPS as regional correspondent for the Asia-Pacific and became regional editor in 1997. She was appointed concurrent regional director in 1998, and oversaw the transfer of the regional headquarters from Manila to Bangkok in late 1999.

Thalif Deen, U.N. Bureau Chief and Regional Director, Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, has been covering the United Nations since the late 1970s. A former deputy news editor of the Sri Lanka Daily News, he was also a senior editorial writer on the Hong Kong Standard.

Walter García has been Chief Technical Officer for IPS since 2003. Based at IPS Headquarters in Rome, he is responsible for the implementation of IPS’s global online presence, for all telecommunications systems and all applications and websites.