LOVEFiLM, Europe’s leading film & TV, digital and DVD rental subscription service with over 67,000 titles, is delighted to appoint online expert Simon Waldman to the executive team as Group Product Director. As LOVEFiLM continues to roll-out its multi-platform hybrid offering of digital and physical content – streaming to TVs and PCs, DVDs by post and mobile services – Simon will take charge of the LOVEFiLM website, user interface and the entire online customer journey.
Simon joins LOVEFiLM from Guardian Media Group (GMG) after more than a decade building the organisation’s highly successful digital platforms. He was Launch Editor in 1999 of guardian.co.uk and, in 2001, the first Director of Digital Publishing for Guardian News and Media, with overall responsibility for online strategy and revenue. Under his management guardian.co.uk became the market leading UK newspaper website, with a six-fold increase in revenues and a move into profitability by 2006. The site has won international recognition for its innovation, design and ability to seize the creative and commercial opportunities offered by the internet, including a partnership with LOVEFiLM. In 2006 Simon was appointed Group Director of Digital Strategy and Development for GMG with responsibility for deploying a successful digital strategy across the Group.
Simon is the author of “Creative Disruption: Why You Need to Shake Up Your Business for the Digital Age”, to be published by Financial Times Prentice Hall in September 2010, and a non-executive director of Eniro, the leading Nordics directories business.
Simon Calver, Chief Executive of LOVEFiLM, said,
“Simon is truly an expert at harnessing the power of a destination website. To date LOVEFiLM customers have generated 80 million ratings and 843 thousand member reviews, and they continue to generate some 2 million trailer views a month, making LOVEFiLM.com a major online community for film and TV entertainment. Simon will be instrumental in taking the core product, LOVEFiLM.com, to the next level making it the pre-eminent European film and TV portal.”
Simon Waldman, added,
“I have been a huge fan of LOVEFiLM since its earliest days, and always impressed by the formidable executive team. I am delighted to be joining their ranks, and helping to take one of the great European online success stories to the next stage in its development.”
