Ashley Highfield is currently CEO of Johnston Press, having worked in high levels in companies including Microsoft, and the BBC.
Formerly, he was UK Managing Director of Microsoft (Consumer & Online), responsible for Windows Mobile, MSN, Hotmail, Windows Live/Instant Messenger, and the newly announced Google rival, Bing. His responsibilities include Microsoft Advertising, the UK’s largest digital advertising agency, which represents Microsoft’s web properties, as well as Facebook, and other third party sites across the web.
Highfield is a Non-Executive Director of bookmakers William Hill plc. He is also a Governor of the British Film Institute. He was recently appointed to the Conservative Party’s review of the Creative Industries, headed up by Greg Dyke, which will help set Conservative policy in the wake of the Digital Britain white paper.
Previously, he was CEO of Project Kangaroo.,[1] the proposed 3-way joint venture (between BBC, ITV & Channel4) offering an internet-based one stop shop for all TV programmes on-demand, which was halted by the Competition Commission. Prior to that, he was the Director of New Media and Technology at the BBC for eight years, responsible for launching the BBC iPlayer. At the time of his appointment to the BBC he was the youngest ever member of the organisation's Executive Board. His department was responsible for the BBC's internet presence - bbc.co.uk, interactive TV - BBC Red Button, mobile services, the BBC's technology portfolio and the BBC’s Archive. He was responsible for around 1,400 staff across the BBC, and an annual budget of £400m.
In 2003 Highfield was awarded the Digital Innovator internet award by The Sunday Times (UK) who dubbed his vision of a 100% digital Britain a "tour de force". In 2004 he was named ‘most influential individual in technology’ by online technology news site Silicon.Com [1] for overseeing a number of ‘firsts’ for a major broadcaster, including the use of peer-to-peer, interactive TV, and multi-casting of TV. In May 2006, Broadcast Magazine [2] wrote "The Creative Future review will enhance the already high standing of Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media and technology. As the principal architect of the BBC's digital convergence strategy, he is increasingly coming to be recognised as one of the most influential figures in world media". [2] In 2007, The Guardian placed Highfield at #31 in its annual survey of the most powerful people in the UK media industry.[2]
In November, 2007 he courted controversy by launching the iPlayer only on the Windows platform.[3] Subsequent iPlayer releases for the Mac, Linux and iPhone have been welcomed by these communities. The iPlayer has been a significant success with over 1,000,000 programs being watched each day from a userbase of over 4 million.[4]
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Educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, Highfield worked as first as a computer programmer before turning management consultant.[2] He worked in the TMT sector for Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) for six years, working in post-apartheid South Africa.[5] In 1994 he returned to the UK to become head of IT and New Media for NBC Europe.[5] He then joined Flextech TV — a pay-TV channel provider — where he worked for five years as managing director of interactive services.[2] While at Flextech he founded Flextech Interactive[6] and invested in online ticketing agency WayAheadGroup and mapping company Multimap.[6]
In October 2000 he joined the BBC as Director of New Media & Technology[5] working for Greg Dyke who said in his autobiography Inside Story pp178-9 "Ashley is one of the most inventive people I know and our one-to-one monthly meetings were amongst the most creative and stimulating I had in my time as Director-General". Tellingly Dyke also noted "Ashley didn't have an easy task bringing all the BBC's online activity under one division, but he did it with great success". In 2005, under new Director Genera Mark Thompson, Highfield retained his place on the new slimmed down Executive Board and was given additional responsibility for Broadcast and Production technology across the BBC. In July 2006 the BBC reformed its structure, turning the New Media department into the 'Future Media & Technology' department (including BBC's Information & Archives business) with Ashley Highfield at its head. During his tenure, Highfield has overseen a massive growth in the BBC's online presence (from 3.5 million to 17 million users), interactive TV and mobile, as well as projects such as BBC Backstage and the BBC Creative Archive — although the latter has been in abeyance since September 2006 pending a public value test. Highfield has also overseen the development of the BBC iPlayer, which has been both praised and criticised (especially over its use of digital rights management).[7] Whilst at the BBC, Highfield claimed £47,000 in expenses between 2004 and 2009, whilst on a salary of £466,000. This included a subscription to Sky and two iPods.[8]
In November, 2007 he courted controversy within the Linux community by understating the GNU/Linux users to the BBC web site, the actual number being somewhere between 0.3% to 0.7%. He apologised for this in his blog.
Highfield is a Chartered Engineer.
Highfield has won several awards, including the following: