We are delighted to announce the appointment of Paul Salvini, who joins us as Global Chief Technology Officer.
Paul brings with him over 25 years of senior management experience in technology leadership positions and a deep understanding of the importance of the role of technology in creative storytelling.
As the CTO of SideFX, where he worked for 15 years, Paul oversaw the development of Houdini from beta onwards, leading his team of software developers, mathematicians and artists to advance the art and science of visual effects by developing one of the most widely used software tools in our industry.
After SideFX, Paul moved on to become CTO of audiovisual technology leader Christie Digital, where he was a key member of the global executive team, providing strategic and technical direction to the company’s 1,500 employees across 18 countries as well as conducting fundamental research into display systems in order to secure early IP for the company.
Most recently, Paul has been CEO of The Accelerator Centre, a not-for-profit business accelerator which provides guidance, mentorship and support for technology start-ups, ranked in the Top 5 for companies of its type worldwide and number one in Canada. Paul and his company have helped launch and support over 120 technology-based businesses in the last few years, working in a wide range of areas from data science, AI, computer vision and robotics to autonomous vehicles.
Talking about his appointment, Paul said: “Technology and science is playing an ever-more important role in the art and creativity of storytelling. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had a hand in many firsts during my career in the entertainment industry – from enabling collaboration for a newly emerging global talent-base of artists and technicians, to the development of software and processes that have fundamentally changed what is possible to achieve digitally. I feel that we are on the cusp of the next big change in our industry, and it is an honour for me to have the opportunity to explore the possibilities with a global leader of the caliber of DNEG.”
Outside of work, Paul has a strong academic research background. He is an Associate Vice President of Research Commercialization at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, and holds a PhD and MASc (specialising in the computer simulation of complex systems) and an MBA, as well as a BMath in Computer Science. He is also a keen downhill skier and ski patroller, an avid photographer and a licensed commercial pilot.
Paul takes the reins from outgoing CTO Graham Jack. Graham originally joined DNEG in 2002 as an artist, when the company was only 50 or 60 people. By the time he took on the CTO role in 2014, DNEG had grown to just over 1,000 employees, split across two facilities. Since then, Graham has worked tirelessly to support the globalisation of the business, developing and rolling out our technology pipeline across all our new global sites and supporting our teams as we grew to 7000+ employees across the world. A big thank you to Graham for all he has done and achieved during his time at DNEG.