Van Den Belt joins SUP - leading Russian online media company

SUP today announced that Annelies Van Den Belt will be joining their executive team as its new Russian General Manager on June 1^st. Ms Van Den Belt will have responsibility for all of SUP’s operations in Russia and the former USSR. In addition to her Moscow-based role she will oversee the development of revenue streams worldwide.

Ms Van Den Belt joins SUP at a time when its businesses in Russia are moving out of start-up phase and into a period of longer term development. In Russia she will have operational responsibility for the four key businesses which SUP manages in the country: LiveJournal’s Cyrillic segment; Russia’s largest online-only sport’s new site Championat.ru; online creative and strategic agency Victory SA; and media sales house +SOL.

Ms Van Den Belt will be working for one of Russia’s fastest growing media companies. SUP was founded in the summer of 2006 by Alexander Mamut and Andrew Paulson. Mr Mamut has a range of investments including many in the creative industries. Mr Paulson is best known for founding Afisha, a cultural and listings magazine, which was one of the first independent media brands to be created in Russia after the fall of the USSR.

SUP is ranked as the 5^th largest online media company in Russia. Its businesses have established partnerships across Russia and the globe with Yahoo!, Last.FM, The Guardian, The New York Times, Forbes and many more. It is best known for acquiring LiveJournal from SixApart in December 2007. LiveJournal.com is ranked by Alexa as the 68^th largest site worldwide, 26^th in the USA, 10^th in Russia and 49^th in the UK.

Her appointment will allow the existing SUP executive team to develop new businesses both in Russia and beyond while also focusing on the global development of LiveJournal. All members of the Russian-based SUP team working on the four key business lines will ultimately report to her.

She joins SUP from ITV, the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, where she was managing director of ITV Broadband. She supported the business grow its digital revenues by almost 60% and unique users by over 40%. Ms Van Den Belt has an impressive track record in managing media businesses both in Russia and the United Kingdom.

Her previous roles have included publisher of The Moscow Times, St Petersburg Times and Russia Business Review. In Britain she worked for News International as Digital Director of The Times online sites and then for The Telegraph Group as Director of New Media. She is a fluent Russian speaker.

Andrew Paulson, chief executive of SUP said today: “Annelies’s decision to join SUP and come back to Russia is an important day for us. Her experience of working in the media both in Moscow and London will be invaluable as the company grows. Our top priority now is to drive increased revenue from the impressive position which our businesses hold in the Russian online market. Annelies has all of the know-how, background and contacts to help us do that in Russia.”

Annelies Van Den Belt said: “The chance to return to Moscow and work for a company which is as exciting and dynamic as SUP was too good to miss. The business is on a solid footing, it now needs to develop and expand, my experience in launching and developing successful digital properties will be put to good use. I am confident that, with the team that Andrew has built, I will be able to play a big role in driving the business forward.”