Simon Crownshaw joined Microsoft in early 2020 and serves as Worldwide Media and Entertainment CTO. In this role, he oversees the global strategy for the industry team and manages the overall strategic direction for Microsoft. He provides leadership and direction to teams across film, TV, sports and live events and the solutions that power those focus areas. In addition to supporting the hundreds of global customers and helping them harness the power of Microsoft to enable media workflows, he is focused on media cloud adoption and the critical data and AI elements that will enable people and processes.

Simon has almost 20 years of experience across all elements of the digital media landscape. Before joining Microsoft, he led technical solutions at multiple studios including the Walt Disney Company across production, postproduction and the entire media supply chain. He has also been involved in cutting edge solutions that have leveraged game engine processing including stagecraft with ILM, and advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning. His philosophy is civilized filmmaking and to enable creative talent to be able to use whatever technology they want wherever they want to use it.

Simon is a champion and advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion in the technology and media industries. He is also helping the industry examine a more focused effort on sustainability with clients across the world.