New Heads for TASR International and Photo Desks - Himpanova & Svitok
Bratislava, October 11 (TASR) – There’s been change at the helm of the International and Photo Desks of the News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR), with Monika Himpanova replacing Jozefina Mikleova as the new International Desk head and Michal Svitok taking over from Vladimir Popelka as chief of the Photo Desk as of Wednesday.
Previously, Himpanova worked as a reporter for TASR’s Domestic Desk, where she covered foreign affairs-related issues. Svitok served as a TASR photoreporter. “I’d like to thank previous heads Jozefina Mikleova and Vladimir Popelka for their longstanding work,” said TASR general director Vladimir Puchala.
Puchala called new International Desk head Himpanova a quality reporter. “She was providing information from London and New York, dealing long term with foreign issues, and she’s familiar with field work. Her project [in bidding for the post] was quite ambitious and innovative,” he stated.
According to Puchala, the new Photo Desk head is a “great photographer, well-versed in technologies”. “We’d like to bring new impetus to both desks, including an Export service in Hungarian and live broadcasts for clients,” explained the general director.
Himpanova’s and Svitok’s projects won in internal selection proceedings that Puchala launched for the posts of all desk heads and department directors. All previous heads as well as every TASR employee were invited to participate, with the projects evaluated by a committee that included members of the TASR Administrative Board.
“I wanted to motivate the existing heads to reflect on new challenges and avenues of development in line with my project aimed at a useful and effective agency. I also wanted to extend an opportunity to new ambitious leaders and their innovations. I’m glad to see that there was strong competition for some of the posts,” stated Puchala.
Domestic Desk head Richard Kvasnovsky, Economic Desk chief Vladimir Jombik and Sports Desk head Peter Horvath all retained their posts.
Jaroslava Mittheissova has been tasked with heading the Documentation Database Desk and Maria Sepelova the Accounts Department both on a temporary basis, with the agency poised to launch external selection proceedings for these two posts.
