Let’s welcome our new board members

These are exciting times for both the industry and for Sohonet, and as part of our continued evolution and growth, we have made five strategic additions to our board, who will be joining our leadership team led by Sohonet’s CEO Chuck Parker.

Each one of them provides our board with a unique background and perspective and we look forward to their expertise as we continue with our vision – to revolutionise the way Storytellers create content by making collaboration seamless and more secure.  

Tim Weller, Vince Pizzica, Dewi Hughes, Steve Aston and Liz Tanner bring together a wide range of skills, experience and expertise, as well as extensive connections with other areas of the creative world.

Firstly we would also like to warmly welcome:

Tim Weller (Chairman of the Board). Tim is a well known media entrepreneur having founded Incisive Media which he grew from start up to revenues of £250m and 2500 staff operating in the US, Asia and Europe. He has extensive experience of Chairing Private Equity backed businesses in the technology and creative services sector.

He is currently Chairman of Pixomondo the Oscar winning visual effects company and of Trustpilot the leading provider of trusted company reviews. Tim was Chairman of RDF Media, one of the UK’s leading independent production companies leading its sale to Zodiak Entertainment. Tim was also Chairman of Superawesome a company that powers the kids’ digital media ecosystem up until its sale to Epic Games in September 2020.

Vince Pizzica (Board Director). Vince is a global information & communications technology (ICT) and media executive with 30 years of experience in championing strategic change and transformation. Vince’s background includes 10 years working at Technicolor, where he oversaw the strategy and M&A activities for global expansion for the world’s largest post-production company, as well as running Technicolor’s Technology business. During that time Vince’s leadership transformed and rebranded French multinational company, Thomson SA, to Technicolor SA – whilst securing its position as the global innovator in Media & Entertainment solutions.

Prior to joining Technicolor, he held senior technology roles at Telstra, Siemens and Alcatel. Most recently Vince transitioned into strategic consulting, drawing on two decades of success as a non-executive director for non-public companies and standards bodies. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Board at BeBop Technology and as a Board member at Electrosonic.

Dewi Hughes (Board Director). Dewi is a regional head for private equity firm LDC, is an experienced mid-market deal specialist.  He has invested in a number of TMT and international businesses and notably led a £80m deal with Plimsoll Productions, a leading independent TV producer and creator of non-scripted content from its offices in Bristol, Cardiff and Los Angeles.  He is focused on supporting portfolio companies with realising their growth ambitions including executing buy and build strategies – for example helping Plimsoll acquire specialist distribution and rights management company Magnify Media in 2020.   Prior to joining LDC, Dewi was a regional head of M&A for Deloitte and previously qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young.

Steve Aston (Board Director). Steve has more than 25 years private experience both as Investor and as a member of management teams.  He is a member of LDC’s Executive, Investment and Valuation Committees.  

He has been with LDC for 14 years during which time he has played a leading role in many of the firm’s most successful transactions including the transformational investment in The National Exhibition Centre Group, Texthelp, AIM Aviation and MB Aerospace and the operational turnaround of City Sprint.  

His post-acquisition work involves supporting management teams to realise their value creation plans across a range of disciplines including sales and marketing effectiveness and operational improvement. Prior to joining LDC, Steve was the Group CFO of the $1bn international Industrials group, Doncasters plc, where he played a leading role in the financial and operational restructuring following 9/11 and Enron crash.

And we are thrilled to be welcoming back Liz Tanner (Board Director), who will be rejoining our Board of Directors as we start this new chapter in Sohonet’s journey. Liz has been a member of our Board for several years and has played a key role in contributing to its growth, development and expansion.  Liz is a highly experienced commercial lawyer who has held a variety of leadership roles within the telecoms and energy industry. Liz has a proven track record of leading complex M&A transactions, regularly focusing on risk management.

She is now Group General Counsel at SSE plc with oversight of  legal, regulation, compliance,  assurance of large capital investment projects. Liz Chairs the Cyber and Privacy Committee with an overarching focus on digitization, data transfer and data security. As part of her role on the GC100 Executive Committee,  Liz has been a firm advocate for diversity, inclusion and agile working within the workplace.

Sohonet’s management, led by our CEO Chuck Parker, and the board are guided by our mission and core values. They recognise that our success lies in serving the needs of the film, TV and advertising communities and designing and building the tools that can help media teams create the unimaginable. We look forward to an exciting and innovative path ahead.