Jeff Hughes Named COO for NEP Group's Global Businesses

NEP Group, the worldwide technical production partner supporting premier producers of live sports and entertainment, announces that Jeff Hughes has joined the company as chief operating officer. Effective immediately, Hughes will be responsible for helping the company increase idea sharing across its businesses and expanding NEP's capabilities as it embraces the future in a rapidly changing industry. The COO role is global and covers all of NEP's operating segments: Broadcast Services, Media Solutions, and Live Events. Hughes will be based out of Los Angeles, California and report directly to NEP's CEO, Brian Sullivan, as a member of the executive team.

A well-respected executive with significant media industry experience, Hughes brings a proven track record of transforming businesses and a deep understanding of NEP's clients, how audiences consume media, and how media businesses operate. He comes to the NEP team most recently from FOX Networks' Digital Consumer Group where he was president and COO. During his time at FOX, he led the complete re-development and modernization of digital streaming capabilities across all networks within 21st Century FOX. He also developed the company's first end-to-end commercial platform for direct to consumer (D2C) services across several FOX networks.

Prior to his role at FOX, Hughes was CEO of Omnifone, a B2B operator of music services in over 35 countries, where he helped transform the music industry from a transaction-based business to a subscription model. Under Hughes' leadership, Omnifone became the industry leader and one of the fastest growing companies in the UK.

Earlier in his career, Hughes worked in consulting in Europe for some of the biggest media companies before moving to BSkyB (later renamed Sky UK) where he became chief technology officer. At Sky, he led the company's IT transformation, including the implementation of new CRM and customer care systems, and launched Sky's Broadband service in the UK. While there, Hughes took the company from a single-service broadcast business to a triple-play company with digital capabilities for the first time.

"The Media industry is experiencing an unprecedented amount of change, with trends like the move to centralized and virtual production accelerating. NEP's deep experience and technological expertise is perfectly positioned to help customers navigate this change, while leveraging our leadership to grow further and faster," says Sullivan, CEO of NEP Group. "The times demand that we have strong global partnerships and client-focused innovation, so it's important that we have the right people in place to move us forward in those areas. Jeff is knowledgeable, approachable and inspiring as a leader. Having watched his career and seen his work and results first-hand, I'm confident he will be a strong addition to NEP."

"I am incredibly excited to join an industry leader like NEP, which is so well positioned to continue to grow," says Hughes. "I'm looking forward to meeting our teams worldwide and our customers to learn more about their operating goals and needs, and to help our customers think through how we can help them adapt to the changes we're seeing. I'm confident that, with the team we have, and the customers we serve, we will continue to lead the industry and have incredible opportunities ahead of us."

A native of Houston, Texas, Hughes spent nearly 20 years overseas and now lives in Southern California with his wife and two daughters. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Texas Christian University and an MBA from Clemson University. He is an accomplished industry speaker and has served on the Boards of Evergent Technologies and the Los Angeles chapter of the American Heart Association.