London and Los Angeles: Sohonet, the leading expert in connectivity and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) for the media and entertainment industry, is pleased to announce the appointment of Chuck Parker to Executive Chairman, whose expertise will continue to guide the company in its global expansion efforts.

Parker joins Sohonet following the successful acquisition of Unicorn Media, a leading provider of cloud video ad insertion technology, by Brightcove, a global provider of cloud services for video. Parker served as Chief Revenue Officer at Unicorn and as VP of Global Media Sales at Brightcove. In addition to fulfilling non-executive chairman duties on the Sohonet Board for the past year, he is a well-known industry thought leader who brings a wealth of media and technology experience to Sohonet.

Previously, Parker spent 15 years at Technicolor where he fulfilled a variety of roles, including Chief Commercial Officer, President of Technicolor's Broadcast and Digital Division, and EVP/Managing Director of Technicolor's International Home Entertainment division and CIO. Parker is also currently the Chairman of the 2nd Screen Society, an innovative digital video industry body he founded in 2012.

Dave Scammell, CEO of Sohonet, said: "We are very excited that Chuck has joined us full-time. Over the past year, he has proven to be invaluable in his insight on the industry, and his drive and passion for the business is infectious. As we expand our renowned Sohonet Media Network (SMN) further into the cloud and grow our range of specialist, media-aware IaaS offerings, Chuck will drive these new offerings to market and ensure they are well tuned to the needs of our expanding client base." 

Sohonet recently expanded its Sohonet Media Network to a growing number of cloud providers, including AWS, Google and Softlayer, creating a "fast lane" to the cloud by providing speedy access and reduced charges for all SMN clients. In the last 12 months, the company has expanded services to customers in Singapore, Montreal, Atlanta, Manchester and Amsterdam, and has significantly increased its client base in Vancouver, New York and core locations of London, Sydney and Los Angeles.

"Sohonet is a highly ambitious company at the leading edge of change and is perfectly positioned to capitalize on the media industry's continuing demand for better, secure solutions to manage its valuable and ever growing digital assets," said Parker. "The company is the recognized global leader in network services for the media and entertainment industry with its renowned Sohonet Media Network. Sohonet has listened carefully to its customers to develop a range of flexible, cost-effective offerings that will ensure media companies are better equipped to meet the many challenges of the rapidly changing digital landscape. I look forward to working with the team to significantly increase Sohonet's footprint on the global stage."