Tom is an Emmy-winning television producer, director, writer and broadcast consultant. In 2020 he negotiated an "unprecedented" order from the Discovery Channel in the US for 50-hours of the primetime entertainment series BattleBots and a further 100 hours for 2021, 2022 and 2023. He has been Executive Producer of the hit series since 2016 and is also responsible for the brand's international rollout to over 150 countries as well as its commercial and business development, including overseeing its multi-platform and social media strategy, which has grown the brand to over a billion views across all platforms and more than 20 million followers. Tom also devised and directed the Las Vegas show Destruct-A-Thon, currently performed nightly at Caesars Entertainment Studios, which recently won an award for Best New Show in Las Vegas (2023). He has two further primetime series in development for other US broadcasters, through his Californian-based consultancy and development company International Content Group.

Tom was born in London but spent his childhood in North East England.  He was educated at RGS Newcastle upon Tyne and at the University of York. He now lives in Southern California.

He has won many international awards, including an Emmy for his TV movie The Bullion Boys (BBC), an Emmy nomination for his documentary I Drew Roger Rabbit, as well as numerous BAFTA nominations and awards, including Best Entertainment Programme. He was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Television Society "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the furtherance of television" and also received numerous international awards for his directing skills, including 2 Roses at Montreux (for ITV's Fire and Ice and the BBC's Challenge Anneka)He began his career as a BBC journalist, and later as Executive Producer, BBC Music and Arts, where he directed and produced comedy, entertainment, dance, music and documentary programmes, including the award-winning dance series The Hot Shoe Show, as well as directing the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Song & Dance (shown on BBC TV).

He founded Mentorn, which soon became the UK's largest independent production company with shows ranging from Question Time to the BAFTA-nominated Robot Wars (which Tom created and produced for the BBC) and later the ground-breaking reality hit Paradise Hotel, which Tom developed and produced for the Fox network in the US.

In 2001 Tom sold Mentorn to The Television Corporation plc and he subsequently became CEO of FremantleMedia North America Inc, America's leading production company, responsible for American Idol and The Price Is Right.

Tom left FremantleMedia at the end of March 2005 and, after a year's sabbatical, during which he gave a number of keynote lectures around the world, moved back to Newcastle. He was Creative Director and Broadcast Consultant of the winning Trinity Mirror bid for the English regional news pilot awarded by the DCMS and he was Executive Producer of a revolutionary "second screen" project for Channel 4's flagship investigative series "Dispatches", nominated for Best Innovation in the 2012 British Journalism Awards. He returned to the US in 2015.

He was appointed Visiting Professor at Teesside University in 2008, and was Chair of the creative agency Northern Film and Media, now North East Screen, from 2013 to 2023, growing it to the most active and influential regional screen agency in the UK.

He has written regular columns for the Newcastle Journal and Chronicle and Voice Of The North, and is also in demand as an after-dinner speaker.

Tom is married to Jo, and has 5 children ranging from 40 to 14 yrs old.




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