U.K.-based Daily Mail and General Trust, owner of dmg :: events, recently made several executive changes, including promoting Geoff Dickinson to CEO, as well as Simon Mellor to senior vice president for the Middle East and Asia and Galen Poss to vice chairman.

Suresh Kavan, who held both CEO and chairman titles of dmge, now will shift into a chairman role, but maintain his CEO position for dmg information.

The new appointments were announced at DMGT’s Investor Day presentation in London and will be effective beginning Oct. 1.

Dickinson is currently president of dmge Middle East and Asia, the largest division within dmge and headquartered in Dubai.

He joined the company in September 2010 and was instrumental in helping to expand its portfolio not only into the Middle East and Asia, but also Northern Africa.

“Under Geoff’s leadership, our Middle East and Asia division has experienced outstanding growth expanding from eight events to twenty, which now take place in seven countries,” said Suresh Kavan, chairman of dmge.

He added, “His division has delivered double-digit revenue and profit growth each of the last three years, while growing his teams and dmge’s reputation in the region.”

Dickinson will be assuming some of the COO roles that Poss currently has, as Poss shifts into his vice chairman position.

As CEO, Dickinson will be responsible for all dmge businesses globally and will serve on the dmge Board. He will continue to be located in Dubai.

Mellor, who currently is senior vice president for the Middle East & Asia, will replace Dickinson as president of the dmge Middle East and Asia.

 “Simon has a consistent and successful track record of launching, building and growing events – both large and small. He is also a strong leader and so this is a terrific move for both Simon and dmg events,” Kavan said.

He added, “As evidenced by this promotion, we are blessed with a strong roster of talent in the events business and it’s nice to see our focus on employing top talent and then developing them as future company leaders, really paying off.”

An industry veteran with 30-plus years of experience, Dickinson began his professional career with emap in publishing before moving into exhibitions.

He became managing director of Focus Events in 1986 and held senior management positions with the Maxwell Group and Haymarket Publishing, prior to moving to the Middle East in 1996 to launch operations for IIR as managing director for the region.

Dickinson established his own exhibitions company Epoc International in 1998, which grew to twelve events before being sold to Messe Frankfurt in 2005. He launched Mecom Forums in 2006, which sold to Clarion in 2009.

Mellor joined dmg in 2001 and during the past 11 years he has worked as a publishing director, vice president, business development director and senior vice president in seven industrial markets, across three office locations in Surrey, Calgary, Canada and Dubai in the UAE.

During his time with the company, he has been involved in business in China, Brazil, Venezuela, Canada, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Mellor has overseen the company’s construction and energy portfolio of events, including the Big 5 exhibition and the ADIPEC event, among many others.

Headquartered in Stamford, Conn., dmge was founded in 1989 and now organizes more than 80 events in 25 countries each year.