France: Vincent Amalvy, 50, has taken over as head of sports at Agence France-Presse. He is the first former head of the photo department to take the reins of a major general service at AFP.

Amalvy started out in journalism at regional newspaper Sud Ouest after studying law. He joined Agence France-Presse as a photojournalist in its Bordeaux bureau in 1990, before moving to the Paris photo staff in 1992.

He was appointed to Jerusalem in the autumn of 1995 and became chief photographer for France two years later. He was promoted to editor in chief in 2000. He was handed responsibility for the France-Europe-Africa region in 2003, before becoming editor in chief of AFP’s global photo operation in 2005.

In 2006, he moved to Washington to take over as chief regional photo editor for the Americas, and also had responsibility for organising AFP’s coverage of global sporting events including the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.

AFP’s sports department has a staff of 60 working in three languages — French, English and Spanish — and covers the full gamut of Olympic sports, as well as autosports, rugby, golf and, in English, cricket. It has specialist correspondents in the United States, in major European countries and across the globe.

The sports department maintains a complete Multimedia databank and organises multimedia coverage of the major sporting events like the Olympics, FIFA World Cups, European Championships and the Rugby World Cup as well as Formula One and the Tour de France.