Hearst Networks EMEA’s head of tech is Matt Westrup. He is CTO, leading the company’s digital innovation and transformation, managing the Operational, Technical and Transformation teams.
Culture is king, he says. “It’s our values that give us the core strength to make decisions.” And Matt has made some crucial ones since he joined the Senior Leadership and EMEA teams in 2019. Not least his stewardship of the network’s channels into the cloud. He has led cloud transformations of the content supply chain and production, partnering with PFT, Amagi, AWS, Blue Lucy and SDVI among others to deliver next-generation content operation and post-production that’s fully remote.
A big believer that Technology is “90% about people”, Matt combines technological insight and executive know-how with an understanding of people, process and purpose.
Matt also oversees business and media operations for A+E Networks EMEA’s portfolio of 32 channels and 55 VOD platforms across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as technology support for the company’s 200+ staff.
After being Head of Operations at Travel Channel International and then Director of Operations at lifestyle programmers Scripps Network, Matt joined A+E in 2016 as VP Operations. He now manages everything ops-based from post-production and localisation to engineering and distribution, as well as delivering innovation and change across the business through technology-led projects.
Starting off as a researcher in the 1990s and then a lighting camera operator, Matt is now a key voice in the UK TVscape, sitting on various industry boards and is a regular contributor to panel discussions.