Ameesh Paleja has joined Starz in the newly created role of chief technology officer.
Paleja will be based at Starz’s office in Englewood, Colo., and report to company COO Jeffrey Hirsch.
Paleja joins Starz from Atom Tickets, a social movie ticketing platform that he co-founded and has served as CEO since 2014. He will continue to serve on the Atom Tickets board and as an advisor and as its head of innovation.
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Paleja started his career at Microsoft in 2001, and joined Amazon.com in 2003, helping to launch Prime Instant Video and Amazon’s Appstore, Cloud Drive the Kindle product line. He also was the founding employee of Amazon’s R&D facilities in Southern California, Starz said.
He earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego, and holds 24 patents in digital video and related fields.
“Ameesh is a visionary and world-class technologist whose substantial experience with digital distribution platforms will deepen our brands’ connection with consumers and provide audiences the highest quality entertainment possible,” Hirsch said in a statement. “I’m delighted to welcome Ameesh to this new role and look forward to what the future holds for Starz and how Ameesh will lead us there.”
