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Tech Topics In This Article: corporate innovation, Atlanta companies
Matthew Drooker, a Georgia Tech graduate with decades of experience shaping Atlanta’s tech landscape, is stepping into a new leadership role. After a long tenure at Turner Broadcasting, he is now the Chief Technology Officer at The Weather Company, where he’ll help drive innovation at one of the city’s most recognized brands.
Drooker’s fascination with computers dates back to his childhood watching the 1983 film WarGames. He ultimately fell in love with the creative side of programming and coding. While at Georgia Tech, Drooker worked his way through college at the school’s computer lab and ultimately found himself at Turner Broadcasting’s headquarters in Atlanta. He stayed with the media giant for over 30 years, holding titles ranging from VP of System Development, to CTO of CNN Digital to Senior Vice President of Platform Technology. During his tenure at Turner, he ran ad sales at CNN and ran the platforms for March Madness.
In 2022, Drooker told Hypepotamus he was ready for his next adventures. He joined SoundCloud, the global music streaming platform, as CTO and held that position for three years.
But he was ready to test his skills outside of the B2C (business-to-consumer) space and saw that opportunity at The Weather Company, the Atlanta-based giant known for its weather data and forecasting technology.
Of course, individuals use The Weather Company’s technology and interact with its products on a daily basis through its app and webpage. But The Weather Company also has a large B2B (business-to-consumer) component, as they work directly with the military and government, as well as supply chain, aviation, defense, and advertising companies.
Joining The World Of Weather
Drooker joins The Weather Company as its executive suite has changed a lot over the last few months. Rohit Agarwal, another CNN and Turner veteran, joined as the company’s new CEO last November. Mailchimp alumnus Michael Love also recently joined as CFO (Chief Financial Officer).
For Drooker, joining The Weather Company presents an opportunity to show the impact of weather data has on our daily lives, making forecasts more actionable and personalized.
“It’s not just about the temperature,” he added.” It’s about when [to walk] my dog so I don’t get rained on. Or for those in the middle of the country, it’s about answering the question: when should I leave Denver to get to Breckenridge so I miss the snow and Vail Pass but hit the top of Breck at the best time to get the best snow.”
But he also sees it as an opportunity to “pay it forward” and build a strong culture to help build up other people’s careers.
“You don’t take gigs for yourself. You take [them] for the people you’re going to work with,” Drooker said. “I’ve been so lucky to learn from everybody along the way…and I’m still learning.”
Drooker knows there are challenges taking over a legacy company’s technology team. But he told Hypepotamus there is a strong opportunity to learn to leverage institutional knowledge while helping individuals and businesses alike.
“The Weather Company [has a] phenomenal set of engineers and product people who have kept the machine going with actually really great tech,” he told Hypepotamus. “But what we are going to start thinking about is, how do we take some of the learnings that we did over in the enterprise side and make them happen in the consumer side.”
