Masterfile creates a global brand and strengthens its capacity for innovation, through developing and reorganising its international marketing and product development departments

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Duesseldorf, November 2007:
In order to promote the strengthening of its competitiveness and establish a reputation as a global brand, the picture agency Masterfile has reorganised its international marketing section, and established a department for product development and innovation. From now on, Masterfile's worldwide marketing and design departments (including those for North America) will fall under the direction of SVP Tomas Speight.

Masterfile's newly-established department for product development has been placed under the leadership of John McDonald, as Vice President of Product Development. The focus of the new department will be upon developing new technologies and services, as well as formulating more user-friendly and experience-orientated product innovations. John McDonald and Tomas Speight will be working in close partnership, in order to guarantee the fast development, provision and communication of new Masterfile features, services and products. Tomas Speight said of the recent changes within the company, "we hope to further-strengthen Masterfile's position as a competitive global business. The establishment of the new departments is a logical step towards the optimisation of our international marketing strategy, towards our emergence as a global brand and towards the strengthening our innovation capacity".

John MacDonald, Masterfile's recently-appointed Vice President of Product Development and leader of the new development department, has been working for Masterfile, in Toronto, since 1999. He was the man who fathered Masterfile's intelligent search-systems: the SimSearch function and the Tag-Cloud tool. In addition, John McDonald was also involved in the development of the royalty-free platform, wonderfile.com. John McDonald was originally employed in the field of film and broadcasting, even working in Hollywood for a time, and gathered almost 20 years of experience in this business.

Since 2005, Tomas Speight has been responsible for the set-up and development of Masterfile's European headquarters in Düsseldorf. In this position, he has held responsibility over the company's European marketing and sales, and also over the coordination of Masterfile's international sales - outside of America - in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Speight possesses comprehensive knowledge and many years of experience of working within the picture agency industry. Before joining Masterfile, he worked for four years as Co-CEO for the picture agency 'Zefa Visual Media Group' and, before that, he was involved in establishing the picture agency 'The Stock Market Photo Agency, Inc.' in Europe.

The first fruits of this budding collaboration will be materialising over the coming months, in the form of exciting product innovations on masterfile.com.

About Masterfile

Masterfile Corporation is the world's leading independent photo agency. The European headquarters has been in Düsseldorf, Germany, since January 2006. Additional branches are in Milan, London and Paris. Its wide array of pictures includes top-quality collections of rights-managed and royalty-free photos by internationally recognised photographers. The company's excellent services are based on personal customer service, fast picture research, including the specially developed SimSearch™ tool, as well as the instant digital delivery of the picture material on the Internet. Company headquarters is in Toronto, Canada. There are independent sales partners in 30 additional countries.

For further information, contact:

Contact Masterfile UK
Masterfile U.K. Ltd.
Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1HR, UK

Direct.: +44 (0)870 351 7930
Email: glawrence@masterfile.com

Contact Masterfile Europe:
Masterfile European Headquarters
Schanzenstr. 20
40549 Düsseldorf, Germany

Direct: +49 (0) 211 95 77 00
Fax: +49 (0) 211 95 77 03 99
Email: duesseldorf@masterfile.com

Press contact:
We would greatly appreciate brief notification of publication or if we are mentioned in your publication. If you need additional information or photo material, please contact Masterfile Corporation's Publicity Department:

L*ÉTOILE PR / Tina Husemann
Schanzenstr. 20
40549 Düsseldorf, Germany

Direct: +49 (0) 211 58 00 56 54
Mobile: +49 (0) 177 672 5403
Email: press.europe@masterfile.com or tina@letoile-pr.de