Future, the Bath-based specialist media group, has strengthened its senior commercial sales team with the appointment of Matt Downs and John Burke, who join as director of agency sales and head of tech partnership respectively.
Matt Downs arrives from Time Inc where over 16 years he held multiple senior positions, most recently as group creative media director – in a role in which he served on the Time Inc. advertising board for the six years. 
He launched the group’s third-party content marketing and production service, and in 2015 his award-winning team won Gold CMA Award for Campaign of the Year – Public Sector for The Army, and Silver for the Under £250,000 category at the British Media Awards for Superdrugs ‘Hero Hunters’ campaign.
As director of agency sales at Future Matt will be responsible for all aspects of agency relationships and trading.
He said: “I’m so excited to be joining the senior team at Future as, although it’s a plc and already has highly trusted and market leading brands, it has the mentality and culture of a digital start-up.
“This means a fast-moving, agile environment that facilitates exciting, innovative and engaging solutions for all our commercial partners – it’s exactly where I want to be.”
John Burke joins Future from The Telegraph Media Group where he held the position of head of tech partnerships.
In this newly created role, John will be responsible for creating and growing partnerships between its market leading tech portfolio and the world’s most exciting tech brands.
While at the Telegraph he was central to the development of long-term commercial partnerships with technology brands. Previous to working at TMG, John has worked in creative solutions for media owners such as Dennis, Nat Mags and Haymarket developing content partnerships in brands such as PC Pro, iGizmo, Stuff and What Hi Fi Sound & Vision.
In 2015 he was central to the team that was awarded the Certificate of Excellence for Media Partnerships for the ‘Philips Innovation and You’ campaign.
John Burke said: “I am thrilled to be joining Future at such an exciting time in their evolution. With its portfolio of the trusted technology brands and a truly global presence, I am looking forward to being able to offer both clients and agencies valuable insight into how to unlock the true potential of their commercial partnerships with us.
Future commercial sales director Clare Dove added: “We are delighted that Matt and John have joined us at this extremely exciting time. Both bring a huge wealth of experience to the team that will undoubtedly help expand Future’s growth and help us maintain our position as the UK’s leader in tech publishing.”
Future’s portfolio spans websites and print magazines and includes GamesRadar, Edge, MusicRadar, Guitarist, SFX and Total Film.
