Tom Gutteridge

Thomas Michael Gillan Gutteridge (born 2 February 1952) is a British television director, producer and executive. He was formerly Chief Executive of FremantleMedia NA, having previously been founder and Chief Executive of Mentorn, from 1985 to 2001. In 2016 he was appointed Executive Producer of the television series BattleBots, which, after two seasons on ABC, in 2018 moved to the Discovery and Science Channels. He started his career as a BBC journalist. Gutteridge was born in London in 1952, the son of a food technologist, and moved to Tyneside when he was 5. He was educated at Priory School Tynemouth, Newcastle Royal Grammar School and the University of York, where he studied English and Philosophy. Gutteridge joined the BBC as a News Trainee, and initially worked at Radio Derby, and in the Newcastle newsroom. He was later a producer and director on Nationwide, Tonight and Panorama. On 11 April 1978, he directed the first Budget Special programme to use live sound from the House of Commons. In 1979 he became producer of the weekly Tonight in Town, hosted by Valerie Singleton and Michael Billington.