NEW YORK, April 10, 2013— VII Photo Agency announced today that CEO Stephen Mayes is resigning, effective May 30. International Director Nick Papadopoulos will serve as VII’s interim CEO until a successor to Mayes is named.
“It’s very tough to leave this great, talented team, but I feel the need to pursue new creative projects that will combine my experience and passion in many different parts of the photographic world,” Mayes said. “It’s been a privilege to work with the world’s greatest photojournalists for the past five years, and what I’ve learned from them has been invaluable and is instilled in me for a lifetime.”
“Under Stephen’s leadership, VII has increased its global footprint and has significantly grown its network of award-winning photographers, whose work appears regularly in the world’s top news media, including Time, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Stern, The Sunday Times Magazine, GEO, The New Yorker and in exhibitions worldwide,” said Ron Haviv, a member of the board and cofounder of VII. “Stephen has been instrumental in executing strategies that have taken VII to the next level. With Nick serving as the interim CEO, we are well positioned during the transition to continue moving forward. We thank Stephen for his enormous contributions to VII and wish him much success.”
Currently, Papadopoulos is the International Director of VII based in Paris and spearheads its sales efforts worldwide, including the U.S. and Americas, supplying the world’s media and NGOs with conflict and documentary photography. Before joining VII in 2005, he served as the editor of Time Asia’s award-winning website. Nick also has worked as a journalist in Hong Kong for the Far Eastern Economic Review and in Sydney, Australia, for the Sydney Morning Herald where he worked his way up from copyboy to Night Chief of Staff.
Recent VII projects include the Emmy-nominated “Starved for Attention” with Doctors Without Borders, which reflects the agency’s growth into multimedia and documentary films; and the VII Mentor program, which supports the development of emerging photographers.
