ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb Gets a COO: Bernard Lunn

Written by Richard MacManus / December 1, 2008 6:00 AM / 15 Comments

I'm very pleased to announce that Bernard Lunn has joined ReadWriteWeb full-time as our Chief Operating Officer. Starting today, Bernard will assume responsibility for most of the non-editorial functions of our business - sales, business development and other operational matters. This allows me to re-focus on leading our editorial, including doing more writing! I will still be running the business, but Bernard will take a lot of pressure off me by running our sales and business development operations. He will also be leading our 'channel' strategy.

Bernard Lunn is based in New York and he has an extensive background in media, having started in online publishing before the Internet (with Prestel in 1980!). He has lived in and started companies in Asia and Europe as well as America; he is Chairman of IQ Resource and Co-founder of iYogi.

Bernard worked for Aregon from 1979 - 1994, a pioneer in what is now called Publish & Subscribe technology. Bernard led sales and marketing for Aregon in London in the run up to the Big Bang deregulation in 1985, took the company into Europe after the crash of 1987 and then built the US operations from 1990 to 1992 in a recession, with minimal capital, against entrenched competitors. After Aregon merged with Kapiti (back office banking systems), Bernard took over and rejuvenated Kapiti's US operations before moving to Asia in 1994 and then the U.S. after that. You can read more about Bernard's background on LinkedIn.

Many of you probably know Bernard already as a writer at ReadWriteWeb (since July '07) and editor of our new Enterprise channel. He often focuses on business issues in his writing, so we're all excited to see that innovative theory being put into practise here at ReadWriteWeb!

Bernard is the third full-time member of ReadWriteWeb, after myself (the founder) and Marshall Kirkpatrick, VP Content Development who joined us full-time in August. The rest of our staff are contractors. I am proud of the whole team we have managed to put together without external funding - or indeed a presence in Silicon Valley until our recent writing hire of Lidija Davis.

Please join me in welcoming Bernard into his new role. We all have big plans for ReadWriteWeb and we're grateful for the continued support of our readers and sponsors.


Comments

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  1. Sounds like a great move, Richard. Congratulations on your success. It's a startup story that many can learn from.

    cheers,
    Graeme

    Posted by: Graeme Thickins | December 1, 2008 6:22 AM



  2. congrats to the rww team! excited to see richard back on editorial!

    Posted by: Allen | December 1, 2008 6:32 AM



  3. Congrats guys! Amidst these 'layoffs', this is fantastic news.

    Posted by: Sid Yadav | December 1, 2008 6:36 AM



  4. Congratulations to Bernard and all of you at RWW.

    Posted by: Adam Lindemann | December 1, 2008 8:11 AM



  5. congrats Bernard Lunn and RRW team :)

    Posted by: ArabCrunch | December 1, 2008 8:12 AM



  6. Heck yeah. Great move, Bernard is perfect for the role. And frankly, happy to see R-Mac getting back into the editorial side of the operation! Congrats, guys.

    Posted by: Josh Dilworth | December 1, 2008 9:17 AM



  7. Congratulations Bernard and the rest of the growing RWW team. RWW is one of my favorite news sources and I'm sure it has a bright future in capable hands!

    --Vishy.

    Posted by: Vishy Venugopalan | December 1, 2008 9:21 AM



  8. Fantastic!!

     Posted by: Zee Author Profile Page | December 1, 2008 1:36 PM



  9. Great hire Richard and congrats to Bernard.

    Posted by: Duncan Riley | December 1, 2008 1:49 PM



  10. Congratulations to the entire RWW team and best wishes to Bernard.

    Have a great week ahead.

    Best,
    Raj

    Posted by: Rajesh Setty | December 1, 2008 7:31 PM



  11. Great move Rafe. Bernard is one of the smartest guys I have had the pleasure of knowing. Congratulations Bernard!

    Posted by: John Cappelletti | December 2, 2008 10:09 AM



  12. Whoops, I meant great move Richard!!!

    Posted by: John Cappelletti | December 2, 2008 10:10 AM




  13. Congratulation Bernard Lunn. More Power and Blessing to readwriteweb team... You have a great team rww ! :)

    Posted by: Maria MacManus | December 2, 2008 1:42 PM



  14. Hire our human resources for 10USD per hour.Check our portfolio
    http://meetadeveloper.com/portfolio.php

    Posted by: Meet A Developer | December 4, 2008 9:46 PM



  15. Congrats RRW - u guys are going places, Bernads gonna take u there :)

    Bernard great to see you in this new role

    Posted by: Ashwen | December 10, 2008 10:36 AM



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