Ian McDonough, the CEO and co-founder of Blackbird plc, has stepped aside.
The company is behind cloud-native video editing platform Blackbird and collaborative video editing and content creation platform elevate.io.
Chief product officer Sumit Rai has taken the reins while McDonough remains an employee and director of the company.
Rai joined the company in 2022 and led the design and development of elevate.io. He will now assume responsibility for all of its operations and businesses.
A week ago McDonough also stepped down as interim chair of Blackbird and appointed non-executive director Youri Hazanov in the post “in order to follow best governance practice”.
The previous chair stepped down in June 2025, leading McDonough to take on the role on an interim basis. COO and CFO Steve White then stepped down at the end of August this year.
“I am a huge believer in Blackbird’s technology and the future of elevate.io. With the platform now surpassing its first thousand paying users and achieving significant validation through our partnership with Google, we have reached an important milestone in its development,” said McDonough.
“We have a natural succession in place, and I firmly believe Sumit is the right leader to take the business forward. His deep product knowledge, passion and expertise in the video creation space will be instrumental in driving the company forward.”
Rai added: “I am proud of what we have achieved with elevate.io over the past four years. We have made significant progress in developing and bringing the platform to market, and I look forward to leading the Company through its next phase of its growth.”
Hazanov said: “I look forward to working with Sumit as CEO. His experience and leadership of elevate.io position him well to take the company forward. On behalf of the board, I would also like to thank Ian McDonough for his leadership and contribution to Blackbird over the past nine years as CEO.”