Thomas Gewecke

Thomas Gewecke was named Chief Digital Officer and Executive Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Warner Bros. Entertainment in May 2013. In this position, he is responsible for driving the Studio’s worldwide digital growth and managing its global business strategy. Gewecke is charged with coordinating the company’s various digital distribution strategies to maximize the value of Warner Bros.’ content across all current and emerging digital exhibition platforms. He also oversees Warner Bros. Technical Operations and Corporate Business Development as well as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s Direct-to-Consumer, Business Development and Flixster groups.

Prior to his current role, Gewecke served as President of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, a position he had held since January 2008. Under Gewecke, WBDD expanded its global footprint to make the Studio’s movie and television content available for transactional purchase in every major market, through more than 100 digital retail partners, and was consistently recognized as a leader and innovator in the distribution of digital content.

WBDD led the industry in offering On Demand movies day-and-date with DVD release, bundling digital copies with new physical releases worldwide and making movies available directly to fans through new channels, including Facebook and as international “App Editions” on the iOS platform. To expand consumer access to the Studio’s vast library, WBDD launched Warner Archive, a groundbreaking service that makes more than 1,000 “out of print” classic movie and TV titles available online and through manufacturing-on-demand technology. WBDD also develops and distributes critically acclaimed digital original programming and content, including H+ The Digital Series, named Best Action or Sci-Fi Series at the 2013 Streamy Awards, and the Inside the Script series of digital scripts, which received a 2013 Publishing Innovation Award. The division supported the record-breaking 2013 Kickstarter campaign for The Veronica Mars Movie, which it will distribute in early 2014.

Gewecke oversaw the Studio’s May 2011 acquisition of Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes, a leading mobile movie service and online aggregator of movie reviews. Flixster was the first service to offer access to UltraViolet, the industry standard for storing digital movie collections in the cloud, and is used on the web or mobile devices by more than 30 million people every month, globally. Flixster serves as a leading provider of UltraViolet EST, Digital Copy, and Disc to Digital services.

Gewecke joined WBDD from Sony BMG Music Entertainment, where as Executive Vice President, Global Digital Business he was responsible for worldwide digital business development efforts and oversaw the creation of new digital ventures. In addition, Gewecke oversaw the company’s online advertising, digital long-form video and direct-to-consumer commerce businesses, and led its expansion into the US off-deck mobile market.

Prior to Sony BMG, Gewecke was Senior Vice President of Business Development in the Digital Services Group for Sony Music Entertainment, Inc, where he founded and led its mobile business, building a leading market position for the company, launching the industry’s first U.S. master ringtone offering in mid-2003 and becoming the only record label to create and operate a major U.S. on-deck, direct-to-consumer mobile storefront. Gewecke also supervised Sony Music’s interest in certain digital media investments.

Gewecke also held the position of Publisher of the PC World Online Network at International Data Group, a leading publisher of print and online technology magazines. During his tenure with the company, he built IDG’s largest online publishing division and oversaw the launch of multiple Internet properties. He also played a major role in the development of IDG’s overall digital strategy.

Gewecke graduated from Harvard College in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in social studies.