Profiles
ANITA DEVASAHAYAM,
M.A. (Comms Mgt),
University of South Australia.
B.A. (Mass Comm),
Universiti Kebangsaaan Malaysia,
Certified HRDC Trainer.
Contact: +6012-277-0568, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
Anita Devasahayam has enjoyed the best of both worlds as a journalist and editor for 12 years, and media relations practitioner for the last eight years.
Her most recent position was the head of media relations for Maxis Communications, the leading cellular service provider in Malaysia.
She is currently the Malaysian project director for Phang & Naughton, a leading Hong Kong PR company, and also heads her own media consultancy and news writing service Trinetizen Media Sdn Bhd.
As a journalist, Anita has worked for The New Straits Times, Berita Harian, The Star and the New Zealand Herald and contributed to various trade weeklies, print magazines and online publications including Knight Ridder financial news, Asia Computer Weekly, CNET Asia, ZDNET Asia, Newsbytes, Intelligent Enterprise Asia, C:Level, Nikkei Electronics and Reader’s Digest Asia.
Anita was among the first women reporters in the country to specialise in technology in the 80s for regional publication Asia Computer Weekly.
She then joined The Star’s In.Tech and rose in ranks to assistant editor, where she co-managed a team of 12 reporters; increased pagination from 16 pages to 64 pages; and grew advertising consistently during her tenure. In event management, Anita has assisted in organising the annual MICROFEST fair in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, the most popular and biggest PC trade show in the country.
She has also organised seminars, workshops, training sessions and conferences including an ASEAN level medical conference and numerous other corporate events.
In media relations, Anita has significantly raised the profile of local companies such as Maxis and Qubeconnect, and multinationals such as Sophos plc, Alcatel and Samsung.
In training, she has conducted courses for press relations managers and executives in AMD, AmBank Group, EON Bank Bhd, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc, Kulim Technology Park Corp Bhd, Motorola Malaysia, Public Mutual Bhd, Sara Lee (M) Sdn Bhd, Penang Seagate Industries (M) Sdn Bhd, Telekom Malaysia’s Multimedia College and Texchem Resources, among others.
JULIAN MATTHEWS,
Dip. Multimedia Production,
SAE, New Zealand,
Certified HRDC Trainer,
Contact: +6012-915-9528, email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
Independent professional journalist, web designer and trainer Julian Matthews is a pioneer in online journalism in Malaysia.
He was the first Malaysian correspondent for AsiaBizTech.com, a Nikkei Business Publications, Inc website based in Silicon Valley in 1997.
Besides Nikkei he has also provided exclusive content for some of the most prominent online technology and business publishers in the Asia Pacific region including CNET, ZDNet and Newsbytes, a Washington Post-Newsweek subsidiary.
As a journalist, Julian has contributed to the New Straits Times, The Star, The Edge and the New Zealand Herald. He is skilled in writing and editing news stories as well as doing analyses and features for print and online publications.
Julian began his career as a freelancer for New Straits Times, and then as a journalist with The Star in 1984. He switched to travel writing in 1989 and won the Tourist Development Corporation’s Best Travel Writer award that same year.
Since 1991, he has established a career as a professional business and technology writer for various corporations, trade publications, magazines and online media.
As a web designer, he has developed various websites with strong emphasis on marketing niche services and raising awareness for non-government organisations.
As a media consultant, Julian has extended corporate writing services to companies such as IBM, HP, Accenture and Nestlé.
Most recently, Julian has advised and trained executives and management in multinationals and public-listed companies on how to get better publicity for their brand, products and services in print and online media.
Julian is the co-founder of media training, consultancy and news writing services company Trinetizen Media Sdn Bhd.