Pieter VanBennekom is currently employed as Editorial Director at Progressive Business Publications (PBP), a Malvern, PA-based diversified business information services company. In that position, VanBennekom oversees the publication of some 40 business-to-business paper newsletters, close to 30 ezines and adzines, daily updated informational Web sites and 10 consumer buyer guides on various types of commonly used office equipment.

VanBennekom joined PBP in 1994 as Senior Editor and managed the launches of several successful new information products such as Safety Compliance Alert, Facility Manager’s Alert, Administrative Assistant Adviser and Quality Manager’s Alert. He became Group Publisher of the Regulatory and Compliance group of newsletters in 1996 and was promoted to Editorial Director in 1998. In recent years, he has overseen the transition of PBP from a publisher of snail-mail paper newsletters to a provider of diversified business information services, most of them Web-based, by retraining staff from newsletters writers to content providers in any platform.

Prior to joining PBP, VanBennekom had a long and successful career with the worldwide wire service United Press International (UPI) starting as a foreign correspondent in Mexico and Central America, and moving up through various management positions to International Vice President and eventually President & CEO. He got his first journalistic experience working on daily newspapers in four different countries: Holland, the United States, Canada and Mexico. He has served on the boards of several foreign press associations at overseas postings, including Bogota, Colombia; San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico City.

VanBennekom was born in Amsterdam, Holland, and studied The Classics and Ancient History in his native country before switching to Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, on a Fulbright foreign exchange student scholarship. He completed post-graduate studies in executive business management at the Kellogg School of Business Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. He has traveled extensively throughout the world and speaks five languages.

VanBennekom also serves on the Board of Directors of Comtex News Network (Symbol: CMTX), a real-time news and information distributor. His hobbies include tennis, bridge and chess. His volunteer activities have included membership on the Board of Directors of the Delaware Valley of Junior Achievement. He also participates in the one-on-one elementary school mentoring program sponsored by PBP.