Club announcement: Eric Wishart takes over from Tara Joseph as FCC president

Eric Wishart, right, is the FCC’s new president. He is pictured here with (left to right) Carsten Schael, Cliff Buddle, Nigel Sharman, and Keith Richburg. Photo: FCC

Club President Tara Joseph has stood down following her move from Reuters to become president of the American Chamber of Commerce, and has been replaced by First Vice-president Eric Wishart.

BBC Hong Kong correspondent Juliana Liu has taken over as first vice-president. She is currently co-convener of the food & beverage and press freedom committees.

The changes were approved at the monthly board meeting on January 21, 2017.

Tara, who was in her second term as president, will remain on the FCC board in an advisory capacity.

“I am sad to be stepping down as club president, as it has been a great honour and pleasure,” she said. “However, I plan to stay active in the club, particularly on the professional committee.”

Eric Wishart, who works for the AFP global news management, first joined the club in 1996 and rejoined in 2005 after spending six years in Paris as the agency’s editor-in-chief.

“I’m greatly honoured to take over as president of the FCC, and on behalf of the board I would like to thank Tara for her great service to the club,” he said.

“We have big events scheduled in the coming months – a new charity fundraiser, the second journalism conference, and the anniversary of the Hong Kong handover, along with the main bar renovation – and I’m delighted that Tara will remain on the board to give us her much valued advice and support.”

Joining the board as correspondent governors are the Financial Times Asia News Editor Victor Mallet, Bloomberg FFM Asia-Pacific Editor Stewart Hawkins, and James Pomfret, the Reuters deputy bureau chief, Hong Kong, and chief correspondent, South China.