iWorld
Grass Valley expands leadership team with key executive appointments
Mumbai: Grass Valley, a global leader in live production solutions, has appointed Tim Banks as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Marek Kielczewski as chief technology officer (CTO), and Jim Kirkland as senior vice president global delivery and support.
These appointments support Grass Valley’s accelerated business transformation and long-term vision of assisting media and entertainment organisations in their digital transformation.
Tim Banks, who has over 25 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry, most recently as VP of sales EMEA at Grass Valley, has served as interim CRO for the past six months. Tim has established an exceptional sales and pre-sales presence in the region and has achieved impressive rates of revenue and market-share growth during his time at Grass Valley.
“I’m very proud of GV’s past and very excited by our future as we continue to help our customers create new revenue streams and drive operational efficiencies, leading the way through the media and entertainment industry’s ongoing digital transformation, “ said Banks
Marek Kielczewski joins Grass Valley with over 20 years of industry experience leading engineering organisations in broadcast, media and entertainment. Marek co-founded TVCoins, a streaming media startup, before joining Grass Valley. He was previously the CTO of SeaChange, where he oversaw the global R&D organisation’s consolidation and transformation.
Kielczewski commented, “I am thrilled to be joining Grass Valley at such a pivotal time not only in their journey, but the industry’s as well. Our new product strategy will have an incredible impact on our current and future customers and will realize the full potential of AMPP, it’s truly an exciting time for all of us!”
Jim Kirkland comes to his new position with over 15 years of senior customer-facing experience, having worked in service and pre-sales at Omnibus, Miranda and Grass Valley.
Kirkland said, “I look forward to elevating Grass Valley’s excellent reputation for customer service even further as we transform our Delivery and Support structure and continue to help our customers and partners succeed.”
Grass Valley CEO and executive chairman Louis Hernandez Jr. said, “I’m delighted that Grass Valley’s leadership is strengthened by the experience and market knowledge that Tim, Marek, and Jim bring to the team. They will be pivotal in reinforcing GV’s customer-centric culture and leading our ongoing business transformation.”
“We will continue to lead in media technologies and digital workflows, to create the future of media production, and to be the best partner for our clients as well as for channel and alliance partners,” added Hernandez.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
