PR LH/08

23 October 2008

 

WMG, the international research and education group at the University of Warwick, has appointed a top media innovator to head its new digital media team.

 

Lucy Hooberman, who has been with the BBC’s Future Media & Technology Division for seven transformational years and prior to that was an executive producer, will join the Group’s Digital Lab as Director of Digital Innovation.

 

The announcement was made during West Midlands Minister Ian Austin’s speech at the launch of 4IP, a new Channel 4 investment fund for innovation. Mr Austin said: "I am very pleased that WMG has been able to attract Lucy to the region. She will be working with Jonnie Turpie, who has been appointed as a Senior Fellow at WMG, to spearhead an exciting new initiative to create an internationally leading ‘Think and Do Tank’ for the West Midlands."

 

Professor Hooberman will build a team of industrial and academic specialists that will see WMG and the University taking a lead in this new and rapidly developing area of work. She will work closely with a range of key stakeholders in the Digital Lab including Advantage West Midlands.

 

Prof Hooberman said: “I am very pleased to be joining this leading research and innovation centre at a time when everybody recognises the value of skills from the creative industries and their transferable potential into other sectors of the digital economy.

 

“I had one of my best production years in the West Midlands producing a film for Channel Four and the BFI with a group of talented teenagers and Jonnie Turpie.  I know there is a very strong digital media base here to build upon.”

 

Director of WMG Professor Lord Bhattacharyya said: “Digital media innovation in the creative and digital economy is a brand new area for us and we are extremely excited to be setting up this team. Lucy is very talented and we are delighted she will be joining us.”

 

 

·         WMG, an academic department of the University of Warwick, is a provider of innovative solutions to industry, supporting some of the most advanced research, development and training projects in the world. www.wmg.warwick.ac.uk

·         WMG has created the International Digital Laboratory, where the digital innovation team will be housed. It is a £50 million multi-disciplinary research and knowledge transfer centre supported by Advantage West Midlands.

·         Pictures of Professor Hooberman can be available on request.