Hong Kong – Colin Lawrence is to take on the post of Commercial Director at BBC World News, with responsibility for all of the channel’s commercial activities. The newly-created role will see Lawrence taking charge of the delivery of revenue targets across the organisation, on all of its platforms, as well as ensuring that its activities support the editorial standards of the BBC. Lawrence will also join the BBC World News board of directors. Lawrence’s career spans over 20 years in domestic and international media, beginning at HTV in 1987. He worked on the launch of GMTV, the national franchise holder for breakfast television in the UK, and spent four years in Hong Kong helping to launch NBC and CNBC Asia, before joining Dow Jones Far Eastern Economic Review as sales director. Lawrence returned to the UK to join BBC World News in 1998, where he has helped pioneer the channel’s digital programme development, content partnerships, in-house production and advertiser-funded programming agreements. Lawrence said, “We’re reaching an exciting point in both the development of BBC World News and the business of news delivery itself. Media convergence and the shifting balance of power around the world make this a fascinating time to be taking on this task.”