Matthew Garrahan is an Operating Partner at RedBird Capital Partners, focused on the Firm’s news and entertainment portfolio.
Matthew is an award-winning journalist and editor and joined RedBird after more than 25 years at the Financial Times, in a career that spanned London, New York and Los Angeles. He most recently led the FT’s digital efforts, overseeing newsroom AI implementation, investigations, data journalism and IP licensing of long-form features and audio series to streaming services.
He started his journalism career as a corporate reporter in London, where he covered sports business and leisure industries for the FT, before moving to Los Angeles, where he put the paper on the map in southern California. He reported on Netflix and the digital revolution that swept Hollywood and broke a string of scoops, including Apple’s $3 billion purchase of Beats by Dre, which won him the breaking news prize at the Society of Business Editors and Writers awards.
After moving to New York, Matthew served as global media editor, reporting on the print to digital transition in news publishing and cord-cutting in pay TV. Returning to London, he was honored with successive Business Journalist of the Year prizes at the UK Press Awards for his leading coverage of the media and entertainment industry, before being appointed News Editor, where he led all of the FT’s news coverage, overseeing its vast global network of reporters, setting the daily agenda and running the front page.
Matthew ran the FT newsroom through the turbulence of the pandemic, reorganizing workflows and reporting lines to ensure the paper could be published daily. He oversaw coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Russia’s war against Ukraine, the U.S. and U.K. elections, and led the newsroom to two News Provider of the Year prizes at the British Journalism Awards.
He is a graduate of the University of Warwick, where he read English and American Literature.