Richard Lindsay-Davies is the chief executive officer of the Digital TV Group, with responsibility for the organisation's overall growth and development.

With over 20 years of television industry experience, Richard drives the DTG's unique collaborative culture bringing a spirit of insight, creativity and excellence to the Group's activities.

Richard joined the Group as Director of Public Affairs in 2004 working with government and stakeholders to establish the UK digital switchover body, Digital UK. He was appointed Director General in 2006, establishing a new vision and operation before transferring to Freesat as Commercial Development Director where he played an integral role in the successful launch of the platform.

Following the launch of Freesat, Richard returned to his role as DTG Director General in October 2008.

Before joining the Digital TV Group, Richard spent 15 years in the television industry with roles ranging from electronic design at Sony through to consumer marketing at Toshiba and strategic marketing at Pace.

The DTG is the industry association for digital TV in the UK and has worked for over a decade to ensure the industry drives ahead with market leading products and services with robust and creative innovations that work from broadcast to consumer. Richard draws on every bit of his unique experience, professional team, and skilled and talented industry players to deliver this.

Rob Webster was appointed Sky’s Commercial Group Director in 2011.  Rob has responsibility for the syndication and wholesaling of Sky’s content across other pay TV platforms, as well as negotiating distribution deals with third party channel partners who broadcast on Sky’s DTH platform.  These deals now extend to High Definition, 3D, video on demand, online and mobile, thanks to Sky’s leadership position across a range of new platforms and devices.  In addition Rob oversees the regulated access to Sky’s DTH platform by non–retailed services, including the UK terrestrial networks.  He also has management responsibility for Sky’s joint venture channels, which include National Geographic, History, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Atheraces.  As Commercial Group Director, Rob also identifies new business opportunities and provides commercial support for other emerging products and services across Sky.  He also sits on the Boards of the National Geographic and History channel group.  Rob is also a member of Sky’s Executive Management team.
 
Rob joined Sky in 1997 as an in-house lawyer before moving across to the commercial team in 2004.  He previously worked at Nynex Cablecomms (now part of Virgin Media) and trained and qualified as a solicitor at Charles Russell solicitors in London in 1994. 

Jonathan Allan is Channel 4’s Director of Sales and leads the corporation’s sales team of over 200 people across agency sales, airtime management, sponsorship, ad-funded programming and product placement, future and digital media ad sales and strategic sales.

Allan is responsible for leading a team responsible for generating over £1billion in annual revenue across spot advertising, online, product placement.  As a not-for-profit corporation, the profit generated by Channel 4’s commercial activity is directly reinvested back into delivery of its public service remit.

He has successfully restructured stand-alone departments Strategic Sales, Future Digital and New Media Ad Sales, and Sponsorship into fully integrated agency/client-focused teams of specialists, to consolidate Channel 4’s position as the essential marketing partner for those targeting young and upmarket audiences. 

With a prestigious career in broadcast media spanning the globe and nearly two decades, Darren has delivered growth across large media portfolios around the world.

Darren joined UKTV – a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive - in September 2010 with the primary objective of driving the profitability and development of the multiplatform network.

Darren’s achievements for the network include the positioning of UKTV as the nation’s fastest growing commercial television network of 2012; committing to investment of over £100m a year in content; launching five new HD channels; creating the number one programme in Pay TV with Dynamo: Magician Impossible and running the UK’s number one channels in both the Lifestyle and Factual genres.

Darren is also at the forefront of UKTV’s Video On Demand (VOD) strategy. UKTV’s channels were the first to join BT Vision’s television service, and are now a part of TalkTalk on YouView. 2012 sees the launch of Dave, Yesterday and Really On Demand, three direct-to-consumer player services.

Before starting at UKTV, Darren was Managing Director of BBC Worldwide Global Channels, where he was responsible for growing and managing the BBC’s extensive channels business, both domestically and internationally, as well as advertising sales across this portfolio and digital media.  Under Darren’s four year leadership, BBC Worldwide Channels achieved dramatic expansion and enjoyed its most successful year in 2009/2010, with record sales and profits.  During this time, he was a member of BBC Worldwide’s Board and Executive Committee Team, and also sat on the UKTV Board. 

Prior to BBC Worldwide, Darren was Senior Vice President, International Networks for Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), EMEA.  Before that, he spent several years in Asia, first as Director of Programming for MTV Asia and then as Director of Business Development at Channel V (part of the STAR TV platform).

He has also sat on the non-executive board for HBO Europe. His television career began as Head of Programming for BSkyB’s The Power Station in 1989.

Daniel Danker is General Manager, Programmes and On-Demand in the BBC’s Future Media division.

Joining the corporation in September 2010, Daniel is responsible for the strategy and delivery of BBC's iPlayer, Radio & Music and Red Button products, working in partnership with the BBC's editorial teams. He also delivers underlying platforms for media, social, blogging, television, and mobile experiences across the BBC Online product portfolio and is a member of the Future Media Group Board.

Daniel joined the BBC from Microsoft, where he helped to develop Mediaroom (the company’s internet-connected TV platform) and, more recently, the platform that delivers music content to the web and the company’s Zune and Xbox devices. He has extensive international experience, having worked in Paris and at Silicon Valley Campus in the US before that.

Daniel was born in Israel and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He went to the University of California at Berkeley and used to fly small planes – but now prefers to stay grounded watching BBC iPlayer.

Montreal-born Michael Comish is co-founder and CEO of blinkbox.com, the UK’s most popular Video-on-Demand website. Since the company was founded in 2006 it has built an audience of over 2 million users per month who watch a library 8,000 movies and TV shows on PCs, Games consoles, Tablets and Internet connected TV sets. Blinkbox was acquired by Tesco in April, 2011.

Michael also played a central role in building the pioneering online-video company AtomFilms, which he co-founded in 1998. As President, he helped Atom grow revenues to over £25m year, successfully merge with Shockwave.com, and build a global audience with more than 15 million users/month. AtomShockwave was sold to Viacom for $200m in 2006.

Between 2002 and 2005, Comish held the role of Managing Director of 4 Services at Channel 4 – a job which included running New Media, the Studio and post production businesses, 4 Creative, and Corporate Development.

A graduate of both The University of Western Ontario and the INSEAD MBA programme in France, he spent the early years of his career at Braxton Associates, before becoming a partner at Mercer Management Consulting.

As Chief Brands Officer Amanda is responsible for the overarching brand strategy for all of BBC Worldwide's businesses and formats. This includes maximising the commercial value of our current portfolio of 14 global brands - including Doctor Who and Dancing with the Stars - and also developing new BBC brands to build future brand revenue growth.

Amanda Hill joined BBC Worldwide in 2003. Before becoming Chief Brands Officer, she was responsible for BBC Earth, a global guardian brand representing the BBC's natural history content and Walking with Dinosaurs. In this role she has driven the growth of these brands leading them into theatric features, exciting live events and driving digital growth with the launch of a new global website for Walking with Dinosaurs and several apps and games

Channel management FOX overseeing marketing, programming, on-air creative, research and presentation.

NGC overseeing marketing, on-air creative, research and presentation.

Pete Flamman joined Turner in 2000, eventually heading up the company’s business development operation. In 2008, he was appointed SVP for Northern Europe. In 2012, he took over responsibility for Turner’s EMEA-wide kids business, bringing together editorial, commercial and operational strategy and activities. He also took over the management of Turner’s EMEA central services, including digital media. In his pre-Turner life, Pete was a consultant at Spectrum Strategy, where he specialised in media and telecoms projects.

Vassilis Seferidis is Director of Business Development for Samsung Electronics responsible for driving revenue growth and strategic development of Samsung’s Consumer Electronics business in Europe.

Vassilis has more than 20 years experience in the Consumer Electronics industry mainly in Strategic Business Planning and Product Management roles. Prior to Samsung, he held senior management positions at Toshiba Information Systems, Philips Electronics, British Standards Institute and British Telecom.

Vassilis joined Samsung from QIO Systems Inc., an innovative Smartphone/iPhone App company which he co-founded and acted as CTO from 2006 to 2009 when the company was acquired by Venture Capital Partners.

Vassilis holds a BSc and MSc from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, a PhD from Essex University and an MBA from Cass Business School (City University), London.

In 2011 Vassilis has been included in the Euro50 list of the 50 most influential people in the broadband and pay-TV industries in Europe.

YouView is an easy to use set top box giving access to over 100 digital TV channels and a wide range of catchup and other ondemand services, subscription free. Richard launched YouView to the press on July 4th 2012 and boxes will be available in retail from the end of July. Richard was appointed as CEO of the joint venture between BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva in September 2010. He has overall responsibility for product development and the overall platform infrastructure, the successful launch and operation of the YouView TV platform.

Prior to YouView, Richard was the BBC's Controller, Business Strategy responsible for strategy in relation to the wider market, the relationship with the BBC's commercial arm BBC Worldwide and development of emerging platforms. Prior to that he led the BBC's Creative Future strategy programme, was part of the team that re-shaped the BBC's production arm and was Controller TV Strategy and developed the BBC's new digital TV portfolio.   Before joining the BBC in 1999, Richard began his career with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) following graduation from University of Warwick.  He lives in West London with his wife and three children.

James Tatam joined Channel 5 in 2011. As Digital Media Director he is responsible for Channel 5’s products and commercial performance across all digital platforms, with a focus on VOD. Prior to joining Channel 5, James held senior digital media and strategy positions at Channel 4 and the BBC.

Bill Scott is one of the founders of Easel TV and its Chief Operating and Commercial Officer. The company’s vision is to enable broadcasters, content owners and brands to build high quality TV experiences using low-cost web components, fast.  Easel TV is helping its clients to exploit broadband connected TVs and in doing so is shaping the future of television.

Bill is working with broadcasters, pay TV operators and major consumer brands to exploit the potential of connected TV with a true understanding of the TV’s context in the home and the need to entertain and stimulate the audience. Easel TV’s Clients include Virgin Media, All3Media, Channel 4 and TiVo.

Easel TV was formed in April 2009 and has quickly grown to more than 20 people. The Suggested TV software platform makes it easy to publish content on multiple Connected TV platforms including Samsung, LG, TiVo, Xbox, Google TV and YouView in addition to tablets & mobile devices.

Andy is co-founder of TV App Agency, which launched in 2011 to provide TV app development and app store submission, to enable brands, production houses, agencies and broadcasters to get onto connected TV.
TV App Agency was founded on the belief that the convergence of hardware devices - mobile, tablets and TV - and the delivery of cross-platform content made efficient by software is the next wave in the digital industry. The company has already delivered 11 apps across connected TV devices for major brands across Europe and has developed a technology engine which enables brands to develop apps and submit them across a range of devices (including Samsung, LG, Philips and Google TV).
Andy’s involvement in TV App Agency follows 25 years experience building businesses in the technology and software sectors.  He worked with the most of leaders in the hi-tech electronics industry including Apple, HP, IBM, as they went through explosive growth in the PC era. He then moved into the software sector as it disrupted the business of in-house bespoke software development, building a $100m, 500 people plus business covering 13 countries, with partners in over 40. Having performed in various sales leadership, VP EMEA and CEO roles, he really understands the needs of the client and the importance of getting the technology right.

Andy brings an in-depth knowledge of how to build successful technology businesses and an experience in enterprise software that underpins TV App Agency’s technology developments.

As Group Director of Ofcom's Content Consumer and External Affairs Group, Claudio Pollack has lead responsibility for activity relating to the empowerment and protection of consumers in the communications and postal industries, and measures to prevent exclusion of consumers from essential services in these sectors, as well as in television and radio licensing, broadcasting standards and communications with Ofcom's stakeholders. The Group's brief also includes market research and internet policy.

Claudio has also recently taken up a position on the Board of UKCISS, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. Prior to joining Ofcom in 2005, Claudio worked at telco Cable & Wireless and at economic consultants NERA.

Professor Purvis's career is probably unique in its range across journalism, management and regulation.

A local radio reporter, a regional television presenter and Sunday tabloid freelance while still at university, he was chosen as one of the BBC's first three News Trainees in 1969. He moved to ITN in 1972 where he went on to win Royal Television Society awards for news and documentaries, two BAFTA awards as Editor of Channel Four News and a TV Times award. He became Editor-in-Chief of ITN and then Chief Executive, and also President of the international news channel, EuroNews, based in Lyon, France.

After Stewart retired from ITN in 2003 he became City's first Professor of Television Journalism and a Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at Oxford University. He was on the panel set up by the BBC Governors to report on the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He was also a regular broadcaster on media matters and a columnist in the Financial Times and the London Evening Standard.

From 2007 to 2010 Professor Purvis was Ofcom's Partner for Content and Standards, effectively the regulator of UK broadcast content, responsible for the implementation of the Ofcom Broadcast Code and other broadcasting regulation. He also chaired the UK Government's Media Literacy Working Group and was one of the founders of the online academic resource Newsfilm Online.

Among the honours and awards he has received, in 2000 he was made a CBE for services to broadcast journalism, in 2005 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Law by Exeter University and in 2009 he received the Royal Television Society's Gold Medal for an outstanding contribution to television.

Professor Purvis is regularly used as a media commentator by broadcasters on issues such as the 'Newsnight' crisis at the BBC in 2012. He writes a blog at profpurvis.com and in 2011 made a documentary for BBC Radio Four called 'When Reporters Cross the Line'. He is now writing a book of the same name with Jeff Hulbert which will be published in the summer of 2013. In other roles Professor Purvis has advised the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications on the governance of the BBC and of behalf of DCMS was the independent chair of a multi-party negotiation to progress digital radio in the UK.

Claire Enders founded Enders Analysis in 1997. Claire is one of the most experienced analysts and forecasters in UK and European media and telecoms, with more than 25 years in strategy development and market research in these sectors. Claire is particularly valued for her independent views and insights regarding cyclical and structural impacts on companies in the media, telecoms, technology and retail sectors. Her company, Enders Analysis, is one of the leading independent research companies in the UK and focuses on research, analysis and specialist expertise across the UK and European sectors. Some 150 financial, corporate and regulatory organisations subscribe to Enders Analysis' independent research reports.
 
Enders Analysis supports a wide range of charities in the UK with which Claire is actively involved, including the Natural History Museum, the NSPCC, and various orchestras and museums. Claire is a Trustee of Glyndebourne Arts Trust.

Mark Brandon is commercial director at Virgin Media. He leads the company’s strategy for advertising across all of Virgin Media’s platforms, including innovative new brand campaigns on next generation digital entertainment service, Virgin Media TiVo, and exploring opportunities across Virgin Media’s new WiFi service on London Underground.

Before joining Virgin Media in January 2011, Mark was director of platforms at convergent advertising solutions company ids. It was in this role that Mark first began to develop the commercial strategy around Virgin Media’s broadband, TV and mobile platforms.

 Prior to joining ids, Mark was an independent digital media consultant and advisor. He has also served as chief executive officer and founder of Mash Digital, chief operating officer of Siren World Wide and head of interactive at Channel 4. His earlier media career spanned planning and buying at CIA Medianetwork, London Media Group, McCann Ericsson London and SSC&B Lintas.

Julian Hough is one of the Founding Partners of The Engine Group. He was part of the team that led the MBO of WCRS in 2004. Julian has worked on some of the world’s best known brands including Orange, Sky, Sony and Santander. He spent 2 1/2 years on secondment to 3 Mobile as Marketing Communications Director. Engine has a famous ad agency with a history of great TV advertising and also one of the hottest social media shops in Jam so Julian does not have a particular ax to grind!

Gill was appointed by incoming CEO David Abraham to lead the newly created Audience Technologies and Insight department, which oversees audience insight, viewer engagement, social media and audience technologies. As part of the C4 Executive Team, Gill is responsible for the transformation of the way in which Channel 4 collates and uses data and viewer insight in order to inspire new ideas and maximise Channel 4’s competitiveness as a media provider.  This work was recently awarded Gold in the 2013 Marketing Week Data Strategy Awards.

Previously, Gill was Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at Channel 4, having joined in Sept 2008.

Gill is a Board Director of the new connected TV platform, YouView, and was formerly on the Board of the digital terrestrial television platform, Freeview.
 
Before joining Channel 4, Gill was at BBC Worldwide for 5 years. She was Head of Strategy, before leading their commercial on demand activities, and subsequently became Director of Children’s.
 
Gill is an economist and chartered accountant, and prior to media worked for the Bank of England, Arthur Andersen Business Consulting and Deloitte Business Consulting.

Ernesto Schmitt is CEO and co-founder of zeebox, the world's leading social TV platform. 

Zeebox is Schmitt's third entrepreneurial venture: he was an early pioneer in online music with peoplesound.com in the late 1990s, and he then created and ran 65-store retail chain Silverscreen across the UK from 2003-2006. Schmitt was most recently Global Marketing Director and Managing Director of the global catalogue division at record major EMI.

He started his career at The Boston Consulting Group and holds an MBA form INSEAD and M.Eng from Cambridge University.

Dan joined Twitter in 2012 and is responsible for the company's broadcast partnerships in the UK. He works closely with broadcasters and production companies to effectively use the platform and create engaging content and events that bring audiences closer to the shows they love. Previously he was Editorial Lead for Social Media for BBC Vision and other credits include the social media campaign for the BAFTA Award-winning BBC Two series Virtual Revolution. He is @danbiddle on Twitter.

Alvaro de Nicolas is CTO of TV at British Telecom. He is responsible for the delivery of the fastest growing platform in the UK and has recently introduced the BT vision 2.0 platform and the BT YouView Launch and is currently working on the Extra channels IPTV Proposition including the BT Sports channels. He has worked in Media and Telecommunications for over 15 years including prior executive positions as VP Professional Services at Seachange, CTO at Havas Media and as a Management Consultant with Accenture prior to that.

Raj joined Intellect, in September 2010, as   Associate Director, for Telecoms and Wireless. Prior to this, he was a Senior Civil Servant at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, most recently leading a cross-Whitehall programme on public sector innovation. Prior to this, he was Director for UK Space Policy at the Government’s British National Space Centre. While at the former Radiocommunications Agency,  he had responsibility for policy and licensing operations for various wireless services.  His early career was in the private sector - in the communications and space industries. His various roles included senior programme manager at Matra Marconi Space Ltd (now Astrium) and Chief Technologist at M/A-Com Ltd. He has an MBA (Imperial College), a B. Eng degree in Electronic Engineering and is a chartered engineer.

Matt has over 20 years experience in Telecoms and Datacomms. He is currently developing the long term strategy for OTT video delivery and monetisation for EE. Matt also has responsibility for the strategy for the core network, peering and content delivery across all brands.

Having had a 6 month secondment in 2012 as Technical Lead for the LTE program Matt has a significant understanding of the end to end challenges of developing a 4G network. He is now looking at the commercial, organisational and technical challenges in overlaying a video distribution network.

Previous to transferring into Everything Everywhere (Orange UK and T-Mobile UK joint venture) Matt was responsible for IP architecture and strategy for Orange UK.

Matt regularly presents at key industry events.

With a prestigious career in broadcast media spanning the globe and nearly two decades, Darren has delivered growth across large media portfolios around the world.

Darren joined UKTV – a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive - in September 2010 with the primary objective of driving the profitability and development of the multiplatform network.

Darren’s achievements for the network include the positioning of UKTV as the nation’s fastest growing commercial television network of 2012; committing to investment of over £100m a year in content; launching five new HD channels; creating the number one programme in Pay TV with Dynamo: Magician Impossible and running the UK’s number one channels in both the Lifestyle and Factual genres.

Darren is also at the forefront of UKTV’s Video On Demand (VOD) strategy. UKTV’s channels were the first to join BT Vision’s television service, and are now a part of TalkTalk on YouView. 2012 sees the launch of Dave, Yesterday and Really On Demand, three direct-to-consumer player services.

Before starting at UKTV, Darren was Managing Director of BBC Worldwide Global Channels, where he was responsible for growing and managing the BBC’s extensive channels business, both domestically and internationally, as well as advertising sales across this portfolio and digital media.  Under Darren’s four year leadership, BBC Worldwide Channels achieved dramatic expansion and enjoyed its most successful year in 2009/2010, with record sales and profits.  During this time, he was a member of BBC Worldwide’s Board and Executive Committee Team, and also sat on the UKTV Board. 

Prior to BBC Worldwide, Darren was Senior Vice President, International Networks for Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), EMEA.  Before that, he spent several years in Asia, first as Director of Programming for MTV Asia and then as Director of Business Development at Channel V (part of the STAR TV platform).

He has also sat on the non-executive board for HBO Europe. His television career began as Head of Programming for BSkyB’s The Power Station in 1989.

Rob Webster was appointed Sky’s Commercial Group Director in 2011.  Rob has responsibility for the syndication and wholesaling of Sky’s content across other pay TV platforms, as well as negotiating distribution deals with third party channel partners who broadcast on Sky’s DTH platform.  These deals now extend to High Definition, 3D, video on demand, online and mobile, thanks to Sky’s leadership position across a range of new platforms and devices.  In addition Rob oversees the regulated access to Sky’s DTH platform by non–retailed services, including the UK terrestrial networks.  He also has management responsibility for Sky’s joint venture channels, which include National Geographic, History, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Atheraces.  As Commercial Group Director, Rob also identifies new business opportunities and provides commercial support for other emerging products and services across Sky.  He also sits on the Boards of the National Geographic and History channel group.  Rob is also a member of Sky’s Executive Management team.
 
Rob joined Sky in 1997 as an in-house lawyer before moving across to the commercial team in 2004.  He previously worked at Nynex Cablecomms (now part of Virgin Media) and trained and qualified as a solicitor at Charles Russell solicitors in London in 1994. 

Jonathan Allan is Channel 4’s Director of Sales and leads the corporation’s sales team of over 200 people across agency sales, airtime management, sponsorship, ad-funded programming and product placement, future and digital media ad sales and strategic sales.

Allan is responsible for leading a team responsible for generating over £1billion in annual revenue across spot advertising, online, product placement.  As a not-for-profit corporation, the profit generated by Channel 4’s commercial activity is directly reinvested back into delivery of its public service remit.

He has successfully restructured stand-alone departments Strategic Sales, Future Digital and New Media Ad Sales, and Sponsorship into fully integrated agency/client-focused teams of specialists, to consolidate Channel 4’s position as the essential marketing partner for those targeting young and upmarket audiences. 

Daniel Danker is General Manager, Programmes and On-Demand in the BBC’s Future Media division.

Joining the corporation in September 2010, Daniel is responsible for the strategy and delivery of BBC's iPlayer, Radio & Music and Red Button products, working in partnership with the BBC's editorial teams. He also delivers underlying platforms for media, social, blogging, television, and mobile experiences across the BBC Online product portfolio and is a member of the Future Media Group Board.

Daniel joined the BBC from Microsoft, where he helped to develop Mediaroom (the company’s internet-connected TV platform) and, more recently, the platform that delivers music content to the web and the company’s Zune and Xbox devices. He has extensive international experience, having worked in Paris and at Silicon Valley Campus in the US before that.

Daniel was born in Israel and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He went to the University of California at Berkeley and used to fly small planes – but now prefers to stay grounded watching BBC iPlayer.

YouView is an easy to use set top box giving access to over 100 digital TV channels and a wide range of catchup and other ondemand services, subscription free. Richard launched YouView to the press on July 4th 2012 and boxes will be available in retail from the end of July. Richard was appointed as CEO of the joint venture between BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva in September 2010. He has overall responsibility for product development and the overall platform infrastructure, the successful launch and operation of the YouView TV platform.

Prior to YouView, Richard was the BBC's Controller, Business Strategy responsible for strategy in relation to the wider market, the relationship with the BBC's commercial arm BBC Worldwide and development of emerging platforms. Prior to that he led the BBC's Creative Future strategy programme, was part of the team that re-shaped the BBC's production arm and was Controller TV Strategy and developed the BBC's new digital TV portfolio.   Before joining the BBC in 1999, Richard began his career with Andersen Consulting (Accenture) following graduation from University of Warwick.  He lives in West London with his wife and three children.

Montreal-born Michael Comish is co-founder and CEO of blinkbox.com, the UK’s most popular Video-on-Demand website. Since the company was founded in 2006 it has built an audience of over 2 million users per month who watch a library 8,000 movies and TV shows on PCs, Games consoles, Tablets and Internet connected TV sets. Blinkbox was acquired by Tesco in April, 2011.

Michael also played a central role in building the pioneering online-video company AtomFilms, which he co-founded in 1998. As President, he helped Atom grow revenues to over £25m year, successfully merge with Shockwave.com, and build a global audience with more than 15 million users/month. AtomShockwave was sold to Viacom for $200m in 2006.

Between 2002 and 2005, Comish held the role of Managing Director of 4 Services at Channel 4 – a job which included running New Media, the Studio and post production businesses, 4 Creative, and Corporate Development.

A graduate of both The University of Western Ontario and the INSEAD MBA programme in France, he spent the early years of his career at Braxton Associates, before becoming a partner at Mercer Management Consulting.

Dan joined Twitter in 2012 and is responsible for the company's broadcast partnerships in the UK. He works closely with broadcasters and production companies to effectively use the platform and create engaging content and events that bring audiences closer to the shows they love. Previously he was Editorial Lead for Social Media for BBC Vision and other credits include the social media campaign for the BAFTA Award-winning BBC Two series Virtual Revolution. He is @danbiddle on Twitter.

As Group Director of Ofcom's Content Consumer and External Affairs Group, Claudio Pollack has lead responsibility for activity relating to the empowerment and protection of consumers in the communications and postal industries, and measures to prevent exclusion of consumers from essential services in these sectors, as well as in television and radio licensing, broadcasting standards and communications with Ofcom's stakeholders. The Group's brief also includes market research and internet policy.

Claudio has also recently taken up a position on the Board of UKCISS, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. Prior to joining Ofcom in 2005, Claudio worked at telco Cable & Wireless and at economic consultants NERA.

Gill was appointed by incoming CEO David Abraham to lead the newly created Audience Technologies and Insight department, which oversees audience insight, viewer engagement, social media and audience technologies. As part of the C4 Executive Team, Gill is responsible for the transformation of the way in which Channel 4 collates and uses data and viewer insight in order to inspire new ideas and maximise Channel 4’s competitiveness as a media provider.  This work was recently awarded Gold in the 2013 Marketing Week Data Strategy Awards.

Previously, Gill was Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at Channel 4, having joined in Sept 2008.

Gill is a Board Director of the new connected TV platform, YouView, and was formerly on the Board of the digital terrestrial television platform, Freeview.
 
Before joining Channel 4, Gill was at BBC Worldwide for 5 years. She was Head of Strategy, before leading their commercial on demand activities, and subsequently became Director of Children’s.
 
Gill is an economist and chartered accountant, and prior to media worked for the Bank of England, Arthur Andersen Business Consulting and Deloitte Business Consulting.

Vassilis Seferidis is Director of Business Development for Samsung Electronics responsible for driving revenue growth and strategic development of Samsung’s Consumer Electronics business in Europe.

Vassilis has more than 20 years experience in the Consumer Electronics industry mainly in Strategic Business Planning and Product Management roles. Prior to Samsung, he held senior management positions at Toshiba Information Systems, Philips Electronics, British Standards Institute and British Telecom.

Vassilis joined Samsung from QIO Systems Inc., an innovative Smartphone/iPhone App company which he co-founded and acted as CTO from 2006 to 2009 when the company was acquired by Venture Capital Partners.

Vassilis holds a BSc and MSc from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, a PhD from Essex University and an MBA from Cass Business School (City University), London.

In 2011 Vassilis has been included in the Euro50 list of the 50 most influential people in the broadband and pay-TV industries in Europe.

Mark Brandon is commercial director at Virgin Media. He leads the company’s strategy for advertising across all of Virgin Media’s platforms, including innovative new brand campaigns on next generation digital entertainment service, Virgin Media TiVo, and exploring opportunities across Virgin Media’s new WiFi service on London Underground.

Before joining Virgin Media in January 2011, Mark was director of platforms at convergent advertising solutions company ids. It was in this role that Mark first began to develop the commercial strategy around Virgin Media’s broadband, TV and mobile platforms.

 Prior to joining ids, Mark was an independent digital media consultant and advisor. He has also served as chief executive officer and founder of Mash Digital, chief operating officer of Siren World Wide and head of interactive at Channel 4. His earlier media career spanned planning and buying at CIA Medianetwork, London Media Group, McCann Ericsson London and SSC&B Lintas.

Ernesto Schmitt is CEO and co-founder of zeebox, the world's leading social TV platform. 

Zeebox is Schmitt's third entrepreneurial venture: he was an early pioneer in online music with peoplesound.com in the late 1990s, and he then created and ran 65-store retail chain Silverscreen across the UK from 2003-2006. Schmitt was most recently Global Marketing Director and Managing Director of the global catalogue division at record major EMI.

He started his career at The Boston Consulting Group and holds an MBA form INSEAD and M.Eng from Cambridge University.

Pete Flamman joined Turner in 2000, eventually heading up the company’s business development operation. In 2008, he was appointed SVP for Northern Europe. In 2012, he took over responsibility for Turner’s EMEA-wide kids business, bringing together editorial, commercial and operational strategy and activities. He also took over the management of Turner’s EMEA central services, including digital media. In his pre-Turner life, Pete was a consultant at Spectrum Strategy, where he specialised in media and telecoms projects.

As Chief Brands Officer Amanda is responsible for the overarching brand strategy for all of BBC Worldwide's businesses and formats. This includes maximising the commercial value of our current portfolio of 14 global brands - including Doctor Who and Dancing with the Stars - and also developing new BBC brands to build future brand revenue growth.

Amanda Hill joined BBC Worldwide in 2003. Before becoming Chief Brands Officer, she was responsible for BBC Earth, a global guardian brand representing the BBC's natural history content and Walking with Dinosaurs. In this role she has driven the growth of these brands leading them into theatric features, exciting live events and driving digital growth with the launch of a new global website for Walking with Dinosaurs and several apps and games

Julian Hough is one of the Founding Partners of The Engine Group. He was part of the team that led the MBO of WCRS in 2004. Julian has worked on some of the world’s best known brands including Orange, Sky, Sony and Santander. He spent 2 1/2 years on secondment to 3 Mobile as Marketing Communications Director. Engine has a famous ad agency with a history of great TV advertising and also one of the hottest social media shops in Jam so Julian does not have a particular ax to grind!

Channel management FOX overseeing marketing, programming, on-air creative, research and presentation.

NGC overseeing marketing, on-air creative, research and presentation.

James Tatam joined Channel 5 in 2011. As Digital Media Director he is responsible for Channel 5’s products and commercial performance across all digital platforms, with a focus on VOD. Prior to joining Channel 5, James held senior digital media and strategy positions at Channel 4 and the BBC.

Bill Scott is one of the founders of Easel TV and its Chief Operating and Commercial Officer. The company’s vision is to enable broadcasters, content owners and brands to build high quality TV experiences using low-cost web components, fast.  Easel TV is helping its clients to exploit broadband connected TVs and in doing so is shaping the future of television.

Bill is working with broadcasters, pay TV operators and major consumer brands to exploit the potential of connected TV with a true understanding of the TV’s context in the home and the need to entertain and stimulate the audience. Easel TV’s Clients include Virgin Media, All3Media, Channel 4 and TiVo.

Easel TV was formed in April 2009 and has quickly grown to more than 20 people. The Suggested TV software platform makes it easy to publish content on multiple Connected TV platforms including Samsung, LG, TiVo, Xbox, Google TV and YouView in addition to tablets & mobile devices.

Andy is co-founder of TV App Agency, which launched in 2011 to provide TV app development and app store submission, to enable brands, production houses, agencies and broadcasters to get onto connected TV.
TV App Agency was founded on the belief that the convergence of hardware devices - mobile, tablets and TV - and the delivery of cross-platform content made efficient by software is the next wave in the digital industry. The company has already delivered 11 apps across connected TV devices for major brands across Europe and has developed a technology engine which enables brands to develop apps and submit them across a range of devices (including Samsung, LG, Philips and Google TV).
Andy’s involvement in TV App Agency follows 25 years experience building businesses in the technology and software sectors.  He worked with the most of leaders in the hi-tech electronics industry including Apple, HP, IBM, as they went through explosive growth in the PC era. He then moved into the software sector as it disrupted the business of in-house bespoke software development, building a $100m, 500 people plus business covering 13 countries, with partners in over 40. Having performed in various sales leadership, VP EMEA and CEO roles, he really understands the needs of the client and the importance of getting the technology right.

Andy brings an in-depth knowledge of how to build successful technology businesses and an experience in enterprise software that underpins TV App Agency’s technology developments.

Alvaro de Nicolas is CTO of TV at British Telecom. He is responsible for the delivery of the fastest growing platform in the UK and has recently introduced the BT vision 2.0 platform and the BT YouView Launch and is currently working on the Extra channels IPTV Proposition including the BT Sports channels. He has worked in Media and Telecommunications for over 15 years including prior executive positions as VP Professional Services at Seachange, CTO at Havas Media and as a Management Consultant with Accenture prior to that.

Professor Purvis's career is probably unique in its range across journalism, management and regulation.

A local radio reporter, a regional television presenter and Sunday tabloid freelance while still at university, he was chosen as one of the BBC's first three News Trainees in 1969. He moved to ITN in 1972 where he went on to win Royal Television Society awards for news and documentaries, two BAFTA awards as Editor of Channel Four News and a TV Times award. He became Editor-in-Chief of ITN and then Chief Executive, and also President of the international news channel, EuroNews, based in Lyon, France.

After Stewart retired from ITN in 2003 he became City's first Professor of Television Journalism and a Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at Oxford University. He was on the panel set up by the BBC Governors to report on the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. He was also a regular broadcaster on media matters and a columnist in the Financial Times and the London Evening Standard.

From 2007 to 2010 Professor Purvis was Ofcom's Partner for Content and Standards, effectively the regulator of UK broadcast content, responsible for the implementation of the Ofcom Broadcast Code and other broadcasting regulation. He also chaired the UK Government's Media Literacy Working Group and was one of the founders of the online academic resource Newsfilm Online.

Among the honours and awards he has received, in 2000 he was made a CBE for services to broadcast journalism, in 2005 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Law by Exeter University and in 2009 he received the Royal Television Society's Gold Medal for an outstanding contribution to television.

Professor Purvis is regularly used as a media commentator by broadcasters on issues such as the 'Newsnight' crisis at the BBC in 2012. He writes a blog at profpurvis.com and in 2011 made a documentary for BBC Radio Four called 'When Reporters Cross the Line'. He is now writing a book of the same name with Jeff Hulbert which will be published in the summer of 2013. In other roles Professor Purvis has advised the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications on the governance of the BBC and of behalf of DCMS was the independent chair of a multi-party negotiation to progress digital radio in the UK.

Claire Enders founded Enders Analysis in 1997. Claire is one of the most experienced analysts and forecasters in UK and European media and telecoms, with more than 25 years in strategy development and market research in these sectors. Claire is particularly valued for her independent views and insights regarding cyclical and structural impacts on companies in the media, telecoms, technology and retail sectors. Her company, Enders Analysis, is one of the leading independent research companies in the UK and focuses on research, analysis and specialist expertise across the UK and European sectors. Some 150 financial, corporate and regulatory organisations subscribe to Enders Analysis' independent research reports.
 
Enders Analysis supports a wide range of charities in the UK with which Claire is actively involved, including the Natural History Museum, the NSPCC, and various orchestras and museums. Claire is a Trustee of Glyndebourne Arts Trust.

Matt has over 20 years experience in Telecoms and Datacomms. He is currently developing the long term strategy for OTT video delivery and monetisation for EE. Matt also has responsibility for the strategy for the core network, peering and content delivery across all brands.

Having had a 6 month secondment in 2012 as Technical Lead for the LTE program Matt has a significant understanding of the end to end challenges of developing a 4G network. He is now looking at the commercial, organisational and technical challenges in overlaying a video distribution network.

Previous to transferring into Everything Everywhere (Orange UK and T-Mobile UK joint venture) Matt was responsible for IP architecture and strategy for Orange UK.

Matt regularly presents at key industry events.

Raj joined Intellect, in September 2010, as   Associate Director, for Telecoms and Wireless. Prior to this, he was a Senior Civil Servant at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, most recently leading a cross-Whitehall programme on public sector innovation. Prior to this, he was Director for UK Space Policy at the Government’s British National Space Centre. While at the former Radiocommunications Agency,  he had responsibility for policy and licensing operations for various wireless services.  His early career was in the private sector - in the communications and space industries. His various roles included senior programme manager at Matra Marconi Space Ltd (now Astrium) and Chief Technologist at M/A-Com Ltd. He has an MBA (Imperial College), a B. Eng degree in Electronic Engineering and is a chartered engineer.

Richard Lindsay-Davies is the chief executive officer of the Digital TV Group, with responsibility for the organisation's overall growth and development.

With over 20 years of television industry experience, Richard drives the DTG's unique collaborative culture bringing a spirit of insight, creativity and excellence to the Group's activities.

Richard joined the Group as Director of Public Affairs in 2004 working with government and stakeholders to establish the UK digital switchover body, Digital UK. He was appointed Director General in 2006, establishing a new vision and operation before transferring to Freesat as Commercial Development Director where he played an integral role in the successful launch of the platform.

Following the launch of Freesat, Richard returned to his role as DTG Director General in October 2008.

Before joining the Digital TV Group, Richard spent 15 years in the television industry with roles ranging from electronic design at Sony through to consumer marketing at Toshiba and strategic marketing at Pace.

The DTG is the industry association for digital TV in the UK and has worked for over a decade to ensure the industry drives ahead with market leading products and services with robust and creative innovations that work from broadcast to consumer. Richard draws on every bit of his unique experience, professional team, and skilled and talented industry players to deliver this.