Hong Kong-registered the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) has appointed Aaron Herps as the General Manager of its Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), following the departure of Neil Gane, who is taking up a position with the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, a unit of Motion Pictures Association of America.

Herps joined AVIA in 2019 as the Operations Manager for CAP, working alongside Gane on all CAP initiatives from government outreach to criminal investigations and associated enforcement actions against syndicates and streaming website operators in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, a statement from AVIA said.

In his role as General Manager of CAP, Herps will build on the strong legacy that he and Gane have built, maintaining the coalitions and alliances across the industry, which have made CAP so effective and continuing to provide expert technical and forensic analysis of the shifting state of the piracy ecosystem to members and government officials.

“Aaron has been instrumental to the success of CAP over the last two years so it gives me great pleasure to see him now taking over the role of General Manager. The fight against piracy never remains static but Aaron has the creativity and skills to lead our industry’s efforts as both the threat and our response to it evolve. I am looking forward to the next chapter of CAP,” said Louis Boswell, CEO, AVIA.

Herps has over 15 years of content protection experience in the sports and entertainment industries across Asia Pacific.

Prior to joining AVIA, Herps was Manager of Digital Content Protection for Asia Pacific at beIN Media Group and was the Senior Manager of Global Content Protection at the Motion Picture Association of America for more than a decade.

AVIA is the trade association for the video industry and ecosystem in Asia Pacific. It serves to make the video industry stronger and healthier through promoting the common interests of its members. AVIA is the interlocutor for the industry with governments across the region, including India, and leads the fight against video piracy through its Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) and provides insight into the video industry through reports and conferences aimed to support a vibrant video industry