Latin America. Andrew Cross has been appointed chief executive of Grass Valley with immediate effect. Cross joins Grass Valley from Vizrt Group, where he was president of global R&D over all product development across all three brands (Vizrt, NewTek and NDI). Previously, he was CEO of NewTek until Vizrt acquired it.
As CEO of Grass Valley, Cross will guide the company through the next phase to drive the digital transformation of its customers and support them in their transition to the future of media and entertainment through IP, software and cloud-based technologies.
"Andrew is an experienced senior leader with deep industry knowledge and a track record of successfully bringing media technology businesses into the new era of cloud-based, software-focused video technology," said Louis Hernandez Jr., CEO of Grass Valley. "I am excited to have Andrew join this transformative moment for the company and the industry. I look forward to his direction and leadership of Grass Valley along with the excellent executive leadership team that already exists."
Cross will lead the Grass Valley team as he realizes his GV Media Universe (GVMU) vision. GVMU is a digitally connected community that enables media companies to combine on-premises, hybrid and public cloud technologies to create live production environments while adapting to future demands.
By making GVMU open to others, the goal is to help accelerate the next big industry transition for all suppliers. Cross brings a wealth of real-life experience to the task. While at NewTek, he led the company to pioneer the use of software-based video technologies to build the first real-time integrated live production systems. This created a new generation of live video production and fueled the revolution of live internet streaming, allowing corporations, education, government, webcasters, and places of worship to deliver videos to their audience. Cross went on to drive the creation of NDI, which has become the largest IP video standard for live video production, in use by thousands of businesses and hundreds of millions of users.
"I am honored to join Grass Valley at such an exciting time. Our mission is to be the leader in the transition to software-based technologies, both on-premises and as media companies move to the cloud." says Andrew Cross, CEO, Grass Valley. "My personal drive has always been to use technology to innovate within the video industry, allowing more people to produce more videos; there is no better time for me than this next step to join the most influential and respected company in the industry."
