Ashley Highfield

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Ashley Highfield (born on October 3, 1965) has been appointed head of Project Kangaroo.[1] He is the former Director of the Future Media and Technology group at the BBC.[2][3] At the time of his appointment to the BBC he was, at 34, the youngest ever member of the organisation's Executive Board. His department is responsible for the BBC's internet presence - bbc.co.uk, interactive TV - BBCi, mobile services, the BBC's technology portfolio and the BBC’s Archive.[2] He was responsible for around 1,400 staff across the BBC, and a budget of £400m [1].

In 2003 Highfield was awarded the Digital Innovator internet award by The Sunday Times (UK) who dubbed his vision of a 100% digital Britain a "tour de force". In 2004 he was named ‘most influential individual in technology’ by online technology news site Silicon.Com [2] for overseeing a number of ‘firsts’ for a major broadcaster, including the use of peer-to-peer, interactive TV, and multi-casting of TV. In May 2006, Broadcast Magazine [3] wrote "The Creative Future review will enhance the already high standing of Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media and technology. As the principal architect of the BBC's digital convergence strategy, he is increasingly coming to be recognised as one of the most influential figures in world media". [4] In 2007, The Guardian placed Highfield at #31 in its annual survey of the most powerful people in the UK media industry.[4]

In November, 2007 he courted controversy by launching the iPlayer only on the Windows platform, and angered the linux community by initially claiming that the BBC website had only 600 linux visitors. Subsequent iPlayer releases for the Mac, Linux and iPhone have been welcomed by these communities. The iPlayer has been a significant success with currently 500,000 programs being watch each day from a userbase of over 2 Million and adding 25% growth to the content served via bbc.co.uk since December 2007.

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[edit] Career

Educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, Highfield worked as first as a computer programmer before turning management consultant.[4] He worked in the TMT sector for Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) for six years, working in post-apartheid South Africa.[5]. In 1994 he returned to the UK to become head of IT and New Media for NBC Europe.[5] He then joined Flextech TV — a pay-TV channel provider — where he worked for five years as managing director of interactive services.[4] While at Flextech he founded Flextech Interactive[2] and invested in online ticketing agency WayAheadGroup and mapping company Multimap.[2]

In October 2000 he joined the BBC as Director of New Media & Technology.[5] working for Greg Dyke who said in his autobiography Inside Story pp178-9 "Ashley is one of the most inventive people I know and our one-to-one monthly meetings were amongst the most creative and stimulating I had in my time as Director-General". Tellingly Dyke also noted "Ashley didn't have an easy task bringing all the BBC's online activity under one division, but he did it with great success". In 2005, under new Director Genera Mark Thompson, Highfield retained his place on the new slimmed down Executive Board and was given additional responsibility for Broadcast and Production technology across the BBC. In July 2006 the BBC reformed its structure, turning the New Media department into the 'Future Media & Technology' department (including BBC's Information & Archives business) with Ashley Highfield at its head. During his tenure, Highfield has overseen a massive growth in the BBC's online presence (from 3.5 million to 17 million users), interactive TV and mobile, as well as projects such as BBC Backstage and the BBC Creative Archive — although the latter has been in abeyance since September 2006 pending a public value test. Highfield has also overseen the development of the BBC iPlayer, which has been both praised and criticised (especially over its use of digital rights management).[6]

In April 2008 it was announced that Highfield is to leave the BBC to head up Project Kangaroo.[7]

Highfield is a Chartered Engineer.

[edit] Awards

Highfield has won several awards, including the following:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ashley Highfield appointed as CEO of Kangaroo. BBC Worldwide Press Releases (2008-04-14). Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
  2. ^ a b c d e Ashley Highfield biography. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  3. ^ Highfield to leave BBC for Kangaroo. guardian.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-04-13.
  4. ^ a b c d Ashley Highfield. MediaGuardian.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  5. ^ a b c Ian Burrell. Ashley Highfield: '99 per cent of the BBC archives is on the shelves. We ought to liberate it'. The Independent. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  6. ^ Situation critical. MediaGuardian. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
  7. ^ Ashley Highfield appointed as CEO of Kangaroo. BBC Worldwide Press Releases (2008-04-14). Retrieved on 2008-04-14.

[edit] External links