Blackbird hires Sumit Rai as Chief Product Officer

Posted: 12/05/2022

12 May 2022, London – Blackbird plc (AIM:BIRD; OTCQX:BBRDF), the technology licensor, developer and seller of the market-leading cloud native video editing platform, Blackbird, today announces the appointment of Sumit Rai as Chief Product Officer. Sumit will join the Company in June 2022 from VEGAS Creative Software where he holds the same role.

Sumit has over 23 years leadership experience in the video and film industry. Starting off as a visual effects and video editor in news production, children’s TV and film, Sumit progressed to Chief Technology Officer at Pukka Films developing an innovative, award-winning production facility before founding Kulu Valley. Providing enterprise video distribution platforms for tier 1 organizations, Kulu Valley was acquired by Qumu Inc (NASDAQ: QUMU) in 2014 where Sumit served as Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Product Officer. Sumit is leaving his position as Chief Product Officer of the well-known video editing platform, VEGAS Pro. He joins Blackbird to lead the strategic development and direction of the Company’s product suite.

Having developed video editing and distribution platforms used by thousands of companies and millions of users, Sumit will help take Blackbird’s multi award-winning and multi-patented technology to wider markets.

Sumit Rai said: “As the future of video content creation moves to the cloud it’s great to be joining Blackbird, already leaders in the space. The opportunities are endless as the technology can add major efficiencies and value in so many markets and enable many new users. I can’t wait to start working alongside the Blackbird team.”

Blackbird CEO, Ian McDonough, added: “I am truly delighted to welcome Sumit, who joins us with immense personal drive and energy informed by relevant industry experience in SaaS video platforms. We are bringing him into the Blackbird team to lead the strategic development of our product portfolio and help accelerate our growth. He joins the Company at an exciting time when we are very well positioned to leverage our core technology into fast growing video markets.”