Philo Welcomes Tom Tidgwell as CFO, Elevates Laura Dechant to COO
Since my appointment as CEO in early March, Philo has been moving with intention. We began by introducing two new packages to suit our customers’ needs, including our $25/month Essential plan and our $33/month Bundle+ plan. We’ve also expanded our free channel lineup and brought additional content into the platform. I hope you’ve enjoyed the changes we’ve made so far — and I want you to know they’re just a preview of what’s ahead for our customers, partners, and team.
Today, I’m proud to announce two additions to our leadership team: Tom Tidgwell joins as CFO, and Laura Dechant has been elevated to COO. I believe these appointments will bring meaningful momentum as we continue to shape what the future of streaming looks like.
Tom joins Philo as Chief Financial Officer, bringing deep expertise in high-growth media and technology companies, with a strong track record in corporate development and M&A. He previously served as CFO at Madhive, an ad tech company backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, for nearly five years. Under his financial stewardship the company experienced hypergrowth; he helped raise $300 million in capital, led a major acquisition, and scaled the organization from 25 to 400+ people. Tom is as much a people leader as he is a dealmaker, with a track record of building and developing high-performing teams. Before Madhive, Tom served in various senior leadership roles at WarnerMedia and Xandr spanning finance, corporate development, and strategy. His experience across streaming, advertising, and corporate development sharpens our ability to invest wisely, move deliberately, and build the kinds of partnerships that move the business forward. Tom has the knowledge, relationships, and expertise to guide Philo to our next stage of our evolution.
Laura Dechant’s elevation to Chief Operating Officer is a recognition of the significant contributions she’s already made to Philo over the past decade. In her previous roles, first as Head of Customer Support and then as Head of Business Operations and a member of the executive leadership team, she has managed the systems that power the company end-to-end: subscription billing strategy, customer support, vendor relationships, content operations, and cross-functional program management for major company initiatives.
As COO, Laura will take on a broader mandate: continuing to drive operational excellence while leading Philo’s integration of AI across business functions. Our goal with AI is to integrate data and systems across the business to supercharge what our nimble team already does exceptionally well. Laura is uniquely positioned to lead this work. She understands how every layer of this organization operates and how to build the cross-functional alignment to drive the business forward.
Whether you’ve been with Philo for years or just signed up, what you’ve come to expect from us isn’t going anywhere. The people who make up this company and this leadership team are a reflection of what Philo is and where it’s going. Tom brings deep expertise from across the media and technology industry. Laura has spent over a decade building Philo from the inside. That combination is what makes this company great. At Philo, our mission has always been to reinvent what’s possible in streaming and to be a different kind of tech and entertainment company, driven by innovation, authenticity, and an uncompromising focus on the customers we serve. We’re proud of what we’ve built and even more excited about what comes next. We’re just getting started.
— Mike Keyserling, CEO, Philo
