Publishing systems developer KnowledgeView has appointed former WAN-Ifra chief Reiner Mittelbach as chief executive.

A former printing equipment sales director with Polar and Heidelberg, he joined Ifra in 2001 and was instrumental in its 2009 merger into WAN-Ifra, leaving shortly afterwards. He followed this with a role building Liechtenstein start up Geopolitical Information Service.

Founder and chairman of KnowledgeView Ali Al-Assam - who remains as chairman - says the appointment is "a big win" for the company and its clients: "We look forward to Reiner developing KnowledgeView further to better serve the publishing industry in Europe, MENA and globally," he says.

Established in 1995, KnowledgeView is based in the UK with an office in Beirut. It claims more than 50 installations and nearly 45 per cent of all premium newspaper content in the MENA region is created using its Publish Live software.

"We were one of very few that started web-based, database driven publishing systems as far back as 1996, and were early adopters of XML and semantic web," Ali Al-Assam says.

The current offering includes products from group companies Rewardisement - which rewards consumers for participation - and NewsSocial, designed to unblock user engagement by creating communities around news content. Mittelbach is chief financial officer of Rewardisement.