Directors
Robert Burke
Non Executive Chairman
Mr. Burke has spent the last 25 years managing international media businesses, with a particular emphasis on emerging markets. He rose to CEO of Worldwide Television News (WTN) in the 1980s and 1990s, developing its market-leading range of news, programming, sponsorship, and satellite distribution services to a global clientele. From 2001 to 2006, Mr. Burke was President and COO of Central European Media Enterprises (CME), during which period the company established itself as the dominant broadcaster in Eastern Europe and the world's highest-margin multinational television group. He began his broadcasting career as a television reporter and manager for ABC News in Washington and New York.
Didier Stoessel
Chief Executive
Didier founded Apace in 2002. Didier graduated with an Msc from ENSTA, the French engineering school in 1987 and got his MBA degree from INSEAD in 1991. Didier Stoessel joined Merrill Lynch in 1991. He left Merrill Lynch in 1997 as a director-investment banking and was at the time responsible for relationships with French corporates. In particular, he worked on the privatisation of Elf Aquitaine, the oil company and France Telecom. Didier Stoessel joined HSBC Investment Bank in 1997 as co-head of corporate finance, became Deputy Chief Executive - Corporate Finance in 1998 and Chief Executive - Corporate Finance in 1999. He left the bank in December 2001. Didier Stoessel has managed Apace Media on a day to day basis since 2002.
Martin Johnston
Finance Director
Martin Johnston is a chartered accountant who qualified with Deloitte Haskins & Sells. He worked in industrial companies for over twenty years and was first appointed to a board position in 1983, as finance director of Landis & Gyr Limited. In 1993 he joined Flight Refuelling Limited, the main operating company of Cobham plc, as finance director and in the following year he joined Servomex plc as group finance director and company secretary. Servomex was an industrial instrumentation group with a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. Martin left Servomex after five years when it was acquired by a larger UK group and joined FTV Group plc in August 2000. FTV was a prominent new entrant into the out-of-home advertising market.
Charles Thompson
Executive Director
Charles Thompson, who is Chief Executive of Steadfast Television, is one of the UK’s most successful factual television producers and senior executives. His reputation for creating popular peak-time factual programming is second to none and includes producing documentaries for Channel Four’s Cutting Edge series, the acclaimed Commando documentary series for ITV, Crime Beat for BBC and many other proven ratings winners over the years. In 1981 he founded IFPA, one of the first independent production companies to work with Channel Four. In 1993 the company was bought by the Trilion Group with Charles remaining as Managing Director. Following Trillion’s acquisition by Associated Newspapers IFPA, now known as Folio Productions, was bought by Mentorn. In 2000 Mentorn was acquired by The Television Corporation, with Charles as Managing Director of the Mentorn Group, by now one of the UK’s largest and most successful production companies. Under his management revenues increased from £17 million to £30 million driven by a raft of peak time successes including Car Wars, Traffic Cops, Shops, Robbers & Videotape for BBC, Chopper Coppers and Cars, Caravans & Chaos for Channel 5. Charles also oversaw the expansion of Mentorn’s activities in the US (executive producing the highly successful Paradise Hotel series for Fox) and its successful move into drama. He was also an executive director of Television Corporation plc, resigning in June 2005, before setting up Steadfast Television.
Anthony Vickers
Non Executive Director
Tony Vickers joined Forecourt Television Limited as Chairman in August 1998 from his position as group sales and marketing director of British Sky Broadcasting Limited, where he was responsible for the growth of advertising and sponsorship revenue and the launch and marketing of new stations. Tony's career in the media sector spans nearly 40 years. In 1973, he was appointed as the first sales director of Capital Radio Limited, the London entertainment radio station, and in 1976 he was appointed to the board of that company. In 1981, he moved to Link Television Limited (formerly Trident Television Limited) where he was sales controller responsible for airtime sales on Yorkshire TV and Tyne Tees TV. In 1983, Tony joined TVam Limited, where he was sales and marketing director. He was also involved in the refinancing and flotation of that company. Tony is currently Chairman of the Circa Group, a personalised conference, events, corporate hospitality and sports travel company recently appointed as official third party agent for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
Michael Morris
Non Executive Director
Michael Morris is a consultant to the Strategic group of companies, advising on M&A projects. He has been lead consultant to various groups on transactions including acquisitions of both private and publicly held companies in the technology, real estate, resources and telecoms fields. He has served as a director of American Building Control Inc. (Nasdaq: ABCX), formally Ultrak Inc. (Nasdaq: ULTK), where he jointly oversaw the divestiture of $36m in assets to Honeywell. He has project managed real estate ventures and advised on start-up, rollout and licensing strategies for technology groups. Michael has also served as a director of Naty AB (Sweden), a consumer products manufacturer and distributor. Previously Michael was Artist & Repertoire Executive with various Zomba companies, a media and entertainment group now part of the Bertelsmann organisation, responsible for talent acquisition, deal structuring and negotiation. He holds a Batchelor of Business degree from Queensland University of Technology.
William Vanderfelt
Non Executive Director
Mr Vanderfelt is a highly experienced institutional investor with over 30 years experience as Managing Partner of Petercam, the leading independent Benelux investment bank, where he was in charge of Institutional Research and Sales. Mr Vanderfelt is an experienced fund investor and acts as a board director of several listed funds. He is a passionate proponent of good corporate governance and will help the Company ensure that it maintains best practice in its corporate governance. His current directorships include Petercam S.A. Luxemburg, Compagnie Immobiliere de Belgique, BFS US Special Opportunities and Vietnam Opportunity Fund.
