Pedro Pina to deliver this year's MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival

He's VP Head of YouTube EMEA.

The Edinburgh TV Festival, supported by Screen Scotland, has announced that this year's flagship address, The James MacTaggart Memorial, will be delivered by VP Head of YouTube EMEA, Pedro Pina.

Lauded as a visionary leader, Pina oversees YouTube’s business, creator, and content ecosystem across Europe, Middle East and Africa. In this role, he leads the platform's relationships with a vast and diverse network, ranging from nascent digital creators to the world’s largest broadcasters and Film and TV studios.

Prior to YouTube, Pina spent over a decade at YouTube parent company, Google, as a Global Client Partner where he drove deep engagement with Europe’s biggest global giants in advertising, including Unilever, L’Oreal, Nestlé, LVMH, VW, and BMW; as well as other leadership roles at McCann Worldgroup, France Telecom, Yum, PepsiCo and P&G, working across many territories including the US, Brazil, Spain, and his native Portugal.

Pina is also a celebrated champion for inclusion, with his advocacy earning him global recognition. He has been named the world’s top LGBT+ executive role model on the OUTstanding 100 Global List; twice recognised by the British LGBTQ+ awards as one of the UK’s most influential and inspirational leaders; and was recently appointed by the UK’s Prime Minister to the Board of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London as a Trustee.

Ahead of delivering the MacTaggart, Pedro Pina said "To be invited to give the MacTaggart lecture is an incredible honour, particularly at a moment when our industry has such a profound opportunity to redefine itself. Television has always been celebrated by its ability to connect us, and today, we are living in the most diverse and flourishing creative era in human history."

"The viewers haven't vanished - they are more engaged than ever, they’re simply ready for us to meet them on their own terms. By bridging the unique storytelling of premium broadcasting with the democratic, expansive power of platforms like YouTube, we can unlock an extraordinary new chapter. I look forward to welcoming leaders to Edinburgh to embrace this future with optimism, and to building TV’s next golden age, together."

To which the Festival’s Advisory Chair, Adam Hawkins, added "I’m incredibly excited to welcome Pedro to the Festival. He is at the vanguard of the next wave of television. I think Pedro’s MacTaggart will be provocative, inspiring and a much-needed reset in how we think about the industry we all love."

Pina follows a long line of renowned speakers in this most prestigious agenda-setting keynote spot in the broadcasting industry. Previous lecturers include James Graham, James Harding, Michaela Coel, Dorothy Byrne, Ted Turner, Armando Iannucci, Rupert Murdoch, Dennis Potter, Jon Snow, Elisabeth Murdoch, David Olusoga, Louis Theroux, Jack Thorne and Emily Maitlis.

Further speaker and session announcements will be made in the coming weeks.

This year’s Festival, by Screen Scotland, will once again be held at the EICC in Edinburgh, and passes are on sale now here.

Edinburgh TV Festival runs Tuesday 25th to Friday 28th August