David McDonald appointment

London, 21 March, 2011 – Saffron Digital, the leading global media delivery platform company, today announced new roles for its senior management team following the company’s acquisition by HTC Corporation in February. Shashi Fernando, the former CEO at Saffron Digital, has now been appointed Chief Content Officer at HTC and Saffron’s former Chief Operating Officer, David McDonald has been appointed as the new CEO. Both changes take place with immediate effect.

David will head up Saffron Digital, overseeing Saffron’s office network and future expansion. The company will continue to provide its cutting edge digital media services to device manufacturers, network operators and content owners, with new client announcements to be made soon. A pioneer in media delivery solutions, Saffron Digital is committed to driving further innovation, moving into new geographical markets and media verticals.

“It would be impossible to overstate Shashi’s contribution to Saffron Digital’s world-beating success over the last five years. He has taken the company from a standing start to a global footing: our clients today include Samsung, LG, HTC, T-Mobile, Paramount Digital and NBC Universal,” said David McDonald, now CEO of Saffron Digital.

“However, the acquisition by HTC enables us to realise some of our own ambitions: to expand our global operations, build capabilities in new related verticals and further scale our global solutions which are already driving incredible success for our customers.”  

Shashi Fernando will now lead HTC’s content strategy, and business and regional deployment, and will be based at HTC’s global headquarters in Taoyuan, Taiwan. He will report directly to Peter Chou, HTC’s CEO.

“It’s been a fantastic five years at Saffron Digital,” says Shashi Fernando. “It has been an absolute privilege to work with so many very talented people which has enabled us to break down technological barriers and develop some truly world-leading services.”

About Saffron Digital

Saffron Digital is a global media delivery platform company, whose products and services are live in 26 countries and 14 languages. Its proprietary technologies, which include the ability to support multi-device video delivery, superfast encoding and Domain Based DRM, have been integrated into products by clients including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, HTC, LG and Samsung, as well as services for Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, Paramount, 20 ^th Century Fox, Sky, T Mobile and Vodafone.

The company is listed in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 2010 and has been named as one of the UK’s top 100 technology and media companies in the Tech Media Invest Top 100 List two years running, in both 2009 and 2010. It was also named Best Video Service Provider in the Mobile Entertainment 2010 awards.