MUMBAI: Derek Chang, who has made his mark in the satellite and cable television industry as a leading strategy and development executive, has been named managing director of Asia Pacific operations for Scripps Networks Interactive.

Chang will be responsible for designing and executing growth strategies in the Asia Pacific region for Food Network and Travel Channel, both of which are available to viewers in selected Asian markets. His focus will be on leveraging Scripps brands across all distribution platforms in the region as well as managing regional programming and marketing strategies.

Chang will report to Jim Samples, president of international for Scripps Networks Interactive. He will start in April and be based in Singapore.

?Scripps Networks Interactive has ambitious goals to significantly broaden its presence in Asia, including wider distribution of our lifestyle brands and programming capabilities,? Samples said. ?Derek Chang?s expertise and reputation as one of the multi-video industry?s leading strategy and development executives, combined with the strength of the Scripps lifestyle brands, give our company tremendous credibility with distributors and potential business partners throughout the region.?

Chang comes to Scripps Networks Interactive from DirecTV where he had responsibility for all content acquisition, original production and programming operations.

?Food Network and Travel Channel are content-rich, highly entertaining networks that already are proving to be popular in the Asia Pacific markets where they?ve been launched. Further, they are the premiere brands in their categories and will serve the company well as we invest in the channels, work to broaden their distribution on all platforms, and explore new business relationships throughout the region," Chang said.

Chang joined DirecTV in 2006 and was executive vice president of content strategy and development. Prior to his role at DirecTV, he held executive positions in finance and development with Charter Communications, The Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (Yes Network), GlobalCenter and TCI Communications / AT&T Broadband.