Ian Fernandes, a former media CEO, has been appointed to the board of Engage BCW, the Kenyan public relations and communication agency. Ian’s appointment to the Engage BCW Board, as executive director, seeks to add value to the PR agency as it targets its next phase of growth.
With a proven track record in growing and scaling businesses gained over a 27-year career spanning the media, technology and communication industry, Fernandes will support the Engage BCW management team with driving growth, transformation, innovation and strategic-thinking to leverage on the massive business opportunities in Kenya and the Sub-Saharan region.
Mr Fernandes is a former CEO of Mediamax Networks, and previously served as managing director of Nation Broadcasting and Digital and managing director of KTN.
“There is now a fine line between PR and advertising, with many brands now realizing that what your consumers say about you is now more important than what you say about yourself,” Fernandes says. “We have had to relook at established ways, to come up with new solutions to meet client needs.”
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He said it’s about time for public relations and storytelling to reinvent themselves with solutions that serve these new requirements.
Ian Fernandes started off his career as an ICT consultant at KPMG, and later joined the Standard Group in 1993, as IT manager. Within four years, he rose through the ranks to Managing Director of KTN and the Group Technical and Production Director, serving both the television station and Standard newspaper.
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In his seven-year stint as MD, he transformed the TV station from a company that was in receivership to becoming profitable and the country’s leading television station.
In 2005, he joined Nation Media Group (NMG) as the Managing Director in charge of the company’s Broadcasting Division, where he worked for nine years and oversaw the business turnaround of NTV Kenya, launched NTV Uganda and was responsible for the strategy and formulation of the group’s new Digital Division.
In 2014 he moved to Mediamax as CEO, where he served for five years. During his tenure, he disrupted the Kenyan newspaper market by re-launching People Daily as Africa’s first national free newspaper, relaunched K24 TV with revamped program content and re-formatted the group’s seven radio stations including Kameme FM , Milele FM, Meru FM, Mayian FM, Emoo FM, and Pilipili FM to become forerunners in their respective categories.
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