General Manager, IDS

Matthew founded IDS in 1992 when cameras still had film and a new file format called JPEG had just been invented. Having started life scanning photos, and looking for ways to store search and send them, IDS began building websites for photo agencies. IDS’s PictureDesk service was born out of a requirement for publishers to instantly view content from multiple suppliers and today hosts 300 million images. Frustrated by the limitations of using words to find images, Matthew built a team to create bespoke visual search and image matching capabilities, within video and stills. Matthew has lectured to the legal and media professions on image synthesis and semantic search.

Prior to IDS Matthew worked as a commodities trader travelling extensively throughout the eastern bloc, Soviet Union, China and North Korea.  Matthew studied philosophy and linguistics at York University, dropping out before it became fashionable to do so, to pursue a musical career recording at London’s Abbey Rd studios and performing at the Albert Hall.