Getty Images Names Ellen Desmarais General Manager of iStockphoto

NEW YORK, July 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein today announced the appointment of Ellen Desmarais as General Manager of iStockphoto, a subsidiary of Getty Images and the web's original resource for royalty-free stock images, media and design elements. Ellen will be responsible for overseeing all strategy and operations with the aim of driving significant growth for iStockphoto worldwide.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130716/NY47729LOGO )

Desmarais has a track record of coupling data-driven strategic thinking and analysis with strong management skills to advance impactful growth initiatives. Prior to joining Getty Images in 2012 as Vice President of Marketing, she was Executive Director, Strategy and Business Development at Dow Jones & Company where she was lead strategist for the company's global consumer media portfolio, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and MarketWatch. Previous roles include General Manager at The Wall Street Journal's Vertical Markets and Brand Extensions, Director at Dow Jones Ventures and Director of Planning and Business Development at McGraw-Hill's Education Group.

"Ellen is a seasoned pro at growing global businesses and brands and has demonstrated a remarkable ability to drive impactful results," Mr. Klein said. "iStockphoto's inspiring collections and user experience are better than ever and I'm delighted to have such a strong leader to advance the business into its next era."

In her short time at Getty Images, Ms. Desmarais has been a key player in mapping out a number of strategic changes to iStockphoto that the company also announced today, including a new pricing strategy that will reduce pricing on half of the iStockphoto library by 50 percent.

"iStockphoto democratized the stock industry a decade ago, freeing creatives everywhere to create beautiful communications on a budget in brand new ways." Ms. Desmarais said. "Today, there are new challenges in an 'always-on' world where content is in more places, in more formats, on more devices than ever before. I am thrilled to play a new role at such an exciting time for iStockphoto and look forward to helping shape the brand and product for further success in the years to come."

A graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the College of William & Mary, Ms. Desmarais is a native of Milford, Massachusetts, and lives in Manhattan. She is based in the company's New York City office.

About iStockphoto
iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of hand-picked, royalty-free photos, illustrations, videos and audio tracks. Using the most advanced search in the business, customers download a file every second from a collection of more than ten million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.7 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

About Getty Images

Getty Images is among the world's leading creators and distributors of award-winning still imagery, video, music and multimedia products, as well as other forms of premium digital content, available through its trusted house of brands, including iStockphoto© and Thinkstock©. With its advanced search and image recognition technology, Getty Images serves business customers in more than 200 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover, purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its best-in-class photographers and imagery help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world's most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and online media. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life.  For the stories behind our content and our technology, visit the Getty Images Blog at blog.gettyimages.com. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gettyimages and Twitter at www.twitter.com/gettyimages. 

Contact: Colleen McCabe, 646-613-3814, [email protected]

SOURCE iStockphoto