Paul Rayson joins DMD from a fixed term contract position on the Executive Leadership Team of Flightglobal, the source of news, insight and expertise for the global aviation community. In that role he worked internationally with airlines, airports and government bodies, having previously held leadership positions across the aviation, aerospace, publishing, consultancy and logistics sectors. He brings a wealth of highly relevant experience to the job and the specialist knowledge needed to lead DMD in its ambitions for the coming years, says the company.
“DMD has challenging but entirely achievable development plans”, said Rayson, “with the fuller integration of its global print and digital services into one seamless multimedia solution. I’m confident my experience with both formats and the main market sectors we serve can help guide completion of that dovetailing process, and I’m happy to inherit from John a strong management team with unrivalled expertise in airline media of every kind.”
Paul Rayson went on to pay tribute to his predecessor, who has run the company for the past 17 years: “Over that time John has successfully positioned DMD for the digital age whilst keeping a strong focus on its core business in physical newspaper and magazine provision; and he has grown us from a UK operation to a truly global one, with service centres from Hong Kong to New York to Istanbul, and beyond. John Howe has been a longstanding leader for DMD, and an outstanding one, and he richly deserves a happy retirement.”
Mr Howe added: “I am leaving DMD in good hands and in good shape – ready to face the challenges ahead in our ever-evolving industry. I joined a company serving airlines in the UK only, and airlines remain the lifeblood of our business, but as we globalised we built new relationships too, with rail operators, airports and airside lounge operators all around the world. That has opened up really exciting opportunities for Paul and the team to develop, and I wish them very great success with it.”
