NEVADA CITY, Calif.—Media workflow and processing provider Telestream has tapped Benjamin Desbois as CEO.

Debsbois, currently the company’s chief growth and strategy officer, will take over as CEO on July 1. He succeeds Dan Castles, Telestream’s co-founder and longtime CEO, who will shift to executive chair of the board as part of a planned transition.

“Telestream has always been built on trust—trust in our people, trust in our products and trust in the customer relationships that have defined this company for nearly three decades,” Castles said. “Benjamin understands that foundation deeply. He knows our customers, our markets and our technology, and he brings the leadership experience and industry credibility needed to guide Telestream into its next chapter.

“I am confident he is the right person to lead the company forward and I look forward to supporting him and the team in my role as executive chair,” he added.

Desbois has held leadership roles across the media and entertainment technology sector for over two decades, Telestream said. As chief growth and strategy officer, he was tasked with advancing Telestream’s go-to-market strategy and reinforcing its position as a trusted partner to broadcasters, content owners, sports franchises, postproduction teams, service providers and enterprises, the company said.

Desbois has also served as Telestream’s chief revenue officer, a job he left in 2023. He later held senior executive roles at Backlight, Avid Technology and Dalet, where he led commercial, product and strategic initiatives focused on media workflows, customer transformation and business growth, the company said.

“Telestream has an extraordinary legacy, and I am honored to take on this role at such an important moment for the company and the industry,” Desbois said. “Dan and the team have built a company with deep customer trust and exceptional technology. As AI and cloud reshape how media is made and delivered, my focus is to build on that foundation while accelerating our innovation in intelligent, AI-driven, and cloud-native workflows, ensuring our customers have the agility and confidence they need to thrive in a changing media landscape.”

Castles will continue as Telestream’s CEO through July 1 and the executive leadership team will also remain in their current roles, the company said.

As executive chair, Castles will support Desbois and the company’s board and executive leadership team on strategic direction, customer relationships and long-term value creation, Telestream said.

Dan Castles has once again returned as CEO of Telestream and is getting the band back together to help the company address current industry challenges.

Castles was the founding CEO of Telestream in 1998 and led it for over 22 years until retiring in April of 2023.

Returning members of Telestream’s senior leadership team include, Mark Wronski (product) and Charlie Dunn (product); Anna Greco (customer experience); and Jennifer Fehrmann (finance). Other members of the senior management team remain in place, said the company.

“The return of these previous leaders reflects the respect we have for our customers and a return to basics, as we navigate the many challenges and dynamics our markets present to us on a daily basis,” said Castles.

“These trusted individuals have substantial industry experience, and I’m thrilled they have rejoined the company to help lead it forward.”

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister website TVBEurope.

NEVADA CITY, Calif.—Telestream has announced a new CEO with Rhonda Bassett-Spiers assuming the post immediately. She succeeds Dan Castles who will retire from the CEO role and remain with the company through April 2023 to aid in the transition of Ms. Bassett-Spiers into her new role. 

Telestream also announced that president and chief operating officer Jon Wilson will remain in his current role, continuing to lead the company’s operations.

Castles, the company’s founding CEO, returned to the CEO position in January 2020 from the Board of Directors to lead the Company’s recent phase of accelerated growth. During his most recent tenure as CEO, Telestream has completed five acquisitions to expand its leadership across the media supply chain, the company said. 

“Under Dan’s leadership and strategic foresight, he has grown Telestream to an industry-leading provider of automation tools and applications across the media supply chain,” said Eli Weiss, managing partner of Genstar Capital which owns Telestream. “I want to thank Dan for his leadership since returning into the role of CEO in January 2020 to guide Telestream through its most recent phase of accelerated growth while positioning the company for continued success moving forward.”

Prior to Telestream, Rhonda Bassett-Spiers’ 30+ year career of leadership across the technology industry included her most recent role as president and CEO of iTradeNetwork, a leading global supplier of end-to-end supply chain management and intelligence solutions for the perishable food industry. Under her leadership, iTradeNetwork developed a suite of industry-first solutions that enabled customers to build resiliency and quickly adapt to the ever-changing conditions of the food supply chain.

“Rhonda has an excellent track record of leadership across the technology industry and pioneering innovation and driving growth,” said Castles. “Our leadership styles are complementary and our priorities of delivering superior customer and employee experiences are consistent, which is why she is the right person to lead Telestream as the next CEO,” 

Rhonda Bassett-Spiers added that “I joined Telestream because of its culture, its track record of growth and profitability, and its leadership position in the video industry. I look forward to partnering with Jon and the great leadership team as the company begins a new chapter of providing world class solutions across the digital media supply chain.”

We live in extraordinary times. Apart from a very small group of macro economists, nobody will have foreseen COVID-19. At Telestream, we have a robust series of strategies in place for most eventualities, but also, we are having to approach the current situation with flexibility and coordinated actions. Questions arise of what the broadcast industry will look like when we return to normality. 

Most business managers have been through economic crises before—each time the agony is different. In previous economic downturns, everyone was still working on premise and the business flow, though challenging, was the same. With COVID-19, so many people now work from home and that is very foreign for all of us. Basic things like getting purchase orders approved remotely can be tough, so everything gets slowed down and there is a “discovery” process for all concerned regarding how to conduct business. Also, in past downturns, things like basic human health was not part of the equation.

With countries accounting for over 50% of the world GDP in lockdown, this is a truly global crisis.  We see the global impact everywhere, which is natural as COVID-19 doesn’t seem to discriminate. I also believe the best path to getting back to normal is one of full cooperation throughout the world versus region by region. Travel will never return to normal if pockets of the world still struggle against the pandemic. Telestream has been fortunate in that what we do is critical during a crisis like this, so our business has remained strong, yet challenging, as nothing is easy.

Telestream is like a lot of companies in that it does not have limitless resources—in this situation it is critical that our team of employees buy into how the company is reacting to the crisis.  Our employees have been amazing. As the leadership team, we have communicated quickly and very transparently with them and we are all in this together. They fully understand this is new territory for all of us, so there is no magic “pandemic playbook” any of us are using. They truly trust us to make the best decisions possible given the circumstances and that is all I can ask for as a CEO.

And they continue to do business. We use Microsoft Teams a ton and after weeks of working from home, I can honestly say we have done a great job coping with the situation. We have not missed a beat from a business perspective. I am not sure how long we can keep it up, but it appears for a few months, we can maintain our stride.

COVID-19: THE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

COVID-19 is impacting different economic sectors in different ways. For Telestream, it has been interesting. For all the wrong reasons, COVID-19 has helped sales of some of our products, most notably our video streaming products like Wirecast. Schools, churches and any organization where communication is critical have zeroed in on Wirecast as being the best tool out there. 

Regarding how we provide technical and operational support to these customers, we are set up to offer technical support remotely already, so that aspect has been more seamless for us.

But will all vendors in our core markets survive covid-19? No, not all companies will survive. In general, those without funding sources who can inject additional capital will fail due simply to a lack of cash. Also, those companies whose customers are in segments most impacted will struggle and it’s natural that many will not make it. We are aware of many, many companies experiencing 50% declines in revenue and they just can’t handle that impact for very long if they don’t have financial resources available to them.

We are just starting to see less restrictions on social distancing—both in the US and in parts of Europe. I am a huge fan of social distancing and have seen its impact on “flattening the curve”. I believe it is premature at this point to reduce the restrictions and we need another 30 days of renewed commitment around the world to continue these measures or else we will be back in the fall timeframe discussing how COVID-19 has made a comeback.

But just how quickly can economies and businesses bounce back? I believe Q2 is going to be just plain tough. Q3 will be improved and maybe to the point where you would call it “mediocre” from normal times. Q4 will be stronger yet, but still not normal. I believe “normal” is only possible once a vaccine is available. I believe over the next 12 months, we all will be dealing with COVID-19, hopefully to less and less of an extent, but it will be with us for some time and it will have some sort of a resurgence once current practices are relaxed. I’m not being negative here; only realistic.

COVID-19’S LONG TERM IMPACT

I believe that two impacts will be felt long term. This pandemic has shown media folks they need to have disaster recovery and remote operations capabilities. They have all learned by now, they did NOT have this in place. So, I see a continued emphasis on getting these operations more secure in case this ever happens again. 

Also, I see industry trade shows being impacted for most, if not all, of 2020: trade shows will not be taking place and all vendors are forced to figure out “virtual” approaches to launching products and staying in touch with customers. As a result, vendors will not automatically revert to pre-pandemic forms of communication.

Worldwide, massive numbers of staff are learning how to work from home. There must be a question of whether we will revert to traditional office-based working practices post-shutdown or will remote working become a more common thing? Based on Telestream’s experience, I completely believe remote working will be a more common practice. I think this will be one of the lasting impacts of COVID-19 frankly. The lack of traffic congestion, reduced pollution, people saving money from reduced fuel costs and the overall level of productivity possible with some form of remote working will create the motivation for continuing this practice on some level.

In this respect, every cloud has a silver lining—anything we can collectively do as a world to reduce pollution is a great thing.

And another silver lining for companies like Telestream is the help the crisis will offer in the establishment of OTT services. I believe this absolutely, without a doubt. Necessity is often said to be the mother of invention and people have had to try things they had never considered before, and OTT is one of those things.

LIFE WITHOUT NAB

Throughout Telestream’s 22-year existence, NAB has been a constant. Every April has seen our annual migration to Las Vegas to meet and greet our fantastic customers and industry colleagues. But this year, we are learning to survive without our Vegas trip. We are doing everything virtually, but it’s way too soon to know how effective we have been. We held our press conference virtually this past week and have numerous reseller meetings this coming week followed by a host of customer meetings. We have the collateral ready, but the jury is still out, as they say, on how effective it will be to truly generate solid customer leads on the scale NAB did.

So, can we see a world without NAB and IBC or is that just not conceivable? Without sounding alarming, I will say “yes,” I can see a world without them or a world where they are much smaller than what they have been in the past. 

In general, I think we will be stronger than ever as an industry even knowing some will face big struggles. The need for the visual content and live content has not gone away so it will return once it is safe for all involved to do so. Nothing from COVID-19 has changed the underpinnings of our industry and frankly, I think it has managed to remind everyone how important this industry is; especially during a crisis like this.

For now, keep safe and well: we look forward to meeting you again, as soon as is safe and practical.

Dan Castles is the CEO of Telestream

NEVADA CITY, Calif.—Telestream has announced a leadership change, as Scott Puopolo is stepping down from his role as CEO and Dan Castles, an original founder of Telestream, is taking over that position.

Puopolo had served as Telestream’s CEO since 2017. No specific reason was given for his departure in the company’s official press release.

“We are grateful for Scott Puopolo’s many contributions to the company,” said Eli Weiss, managing director of Genstar Capital, Telestream’s majority shareholder. “Scott has been a great partner to Genstar in our efforts to grow and expand Telestream. As we embark on a new decade which promises to bring fundamental changes to the broadcast industry, we are excited to have Dan rejoin Telestream to help drive its growth strategy and continue to lead the industry.”

In addition to being one of Telestream’s original founders, Castles also previously served as the company’s CEO for 20 years.

“Broadcast business models need to evolve to meet rapidly changing consumption habits,” Castles said. “Telestream is perfectly positioned to help organizations navigate the myriad challenges that face them. Our employees’ dedication to excellence, spirit of innovation and unwavering focus on customer needs are at the heart of our success and the reasons why I am excited to come back and help take the company into its next stage of growth and evolution.”

NEVADA CITY, CALIF.—A changing of the guard has been announced at Telestream, as Dan Castles, CEO and one of the company’s original founders, is retiring. Taking over as CEO, effective immediately, will be ex-Cisco executive Scott Puopolo.

Scott Puopolo

Puopolo has previous connections with Telestream, having served as a Telestream board member. Prior to taking on this new position, Puopolo was executive vice president at iconectiv, as well as past tenures as Cisco Systems and Accenture.

Castles will remain on Telestream’s board and continue as an ambassador for Telestream in the community, per the company press release.

“Knowing the right time to retire is not easy,” said Castles. “However, I am confident that Scott is the right man to take this business to the next level. We have achieved a lot over the last 20 years, growing from a small team of 11 to over 400 bright and dedicated employees all over the world. I look forward to working with Scott, the board and the rest of the executive team on a transition which ensures that the next 20 years are our most successful ever.”

Telesetream is a provider of file-based media workflow orchestration, media streaming and delivery technologies. It recently acquired video quality monitor and analytics provider IneoQuest into its business.