Benjamin Desbois

Chief Executive Officer Telestream

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Benjamin Desbois is Chief Executive Officer of Telestream, the privately held Nevada City, California company whose software and test-and-measurement products handle video ingest, transcoding, quality control, captioning and live production for broadcasters and media companies. He took over on 1 July 2026 from co-founder Dan Castles, who moved to Executive Chair. It is his second spell at the company: he was Telestream’s Chief Revenue Officer until 2023, left to become Chief Operating Officer of Backlight, and returned in February 2025 as Chief Growth and Strategy Officer. His background is commercial, built over more than two decades in sales and general management at media technology vendors including Avid Technology and Dalet.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Telestream from 1 July 2026, under a succession announced on 26 May 2026.
• Chief Growth and Strategy Officer of Telestream from February 2025, responsible for developing its go-to-market strategy.
• Chief Operating Officer of Backlight, a media production software company, from August 2023.
• Chief Revenue Officer of Telestream before 2023.
• Vice President of Sales for the Americas at Avid Technology, after several management positions there.
• General Manager for North America at Dalet, after earlier product management, professional services and sales roles.

Professional Journey

Desbois began his career at Dalet, the media asset management and newsroom software vendor, where he held product management, professional services and sales positions before becoming general manager for North America. He moved to Avid Technology and held several management positions, most recently vice president of sales for the Americas.

He then joined Telestream as Chief Revenue Officer. In August 2023 he left to become Chief Operating Officer of Backlight, whose chief executive Ben Kaplan cited his record in scaling “customer-facing functions including sales, sales engineering, professional services and customer success” and his experience supporting M&A integration.

In February 2025 Telestream brought him back as Chief Growth and Strategy Officer. Dan Castles, the co-founder who had returned as CEO a few weeks earlier, described him as “highly regarded within the M&E industry”, with a deep understanding of Telestream’s products and channels. In that role he developed the company’s go-to-market strategy and worked on relationships with broadcasters, content owners and sports organisations.

On 26 May 2026 Telestream’s board named him the next CEO, effective 1 July 2026, with Castles becoming Executive Chair. “As AI and cloud reshape how media is made and delivered,” Desbois said, “my focus is to build on that foundation while accelerating our innovation in intelligent, AI-driven, and cloud-native workflows.” The company’s leadership page now lists him as CEO.

Education

No education record was found in any first-party or dated press source.