BlueBolt has announced the appointment of Priam Sampaio with promotions for Tom Mawby and Ben Starkey.
Formerly co-chief technology officer at the visual effects studio, Tom Mawby moves up to the CTO role with immediate effect. Supporting the studio’s film and episodic projects, Mawby takes on responsibility for technology strategy and operations. In a career which has included senior roles at DNEG and Framestore, he has more than 20 years of experience in technical, R&D and software development. Mawby joined BlueBolt in 2020 after leading an international team building a visual effects pipeline for Technicolor at Mill Film.
Ben Starkey takes up the position of head of systems, having joined BlueBolt two years ago as lead systems engineer. Over more than two decades, Starkey gained extensive experience leading infrastructure projects at Supermassive Games, Trustpay Global and British Airways.
The company also announced the appointment of Priam Sampaio as head of pipeline. Sampaio brings seven years of experience as senior pipeline technical director at ILM to the role, having also held positions at The Imaginarium Studios and The Senate VFX.
Tom Mawby, new CTO at BlueBolt said: “What makes BlueBolt special isn’t just our creative track record – it’s the people behind it. As we grow this year, I’m focused on making sure our tech can keep pace with our artists’ imaginations, and get out of the way to let them do their incredible work. We’re already seeing real benefits from our microservice framework and our new USD pipeline, and the way that AI tools have been helping accelerate both our developers and artists has been eye-opening. Having Ben and Priam on the tech leadership team brings fresh energy and expertise at the perfect time.”
BlueBolt MD Tracy McCreary added: “Tom has done an incredible job as co-CTO over the past two years, alongside George as part of the senior team. Under his technological leadership we look forward to continuing to expand our creative boundaries and maximise our team’s ability to deliver the highest standards of work on screen.”
