Goalhanger has made three senior appointments as it moves to scale beyond podcasts and accelerate international growth following a record year.
The hires signal Goalhanger’s shift from a hit-driven podcast network to a broader media business, with new emphasis on operational scale, financial discipline and expansion into written formats.
The company, which said it surpassed 750 million streams last year, has appointed Andy Hodgson as chief financial officer, Chloe Straw as director of operations and Emily Kent Smith as editorial director.
Hodgson joins from Uber, where he spent five years in senior finance roles and worked on regional strategy during the company’s transition to a listed business. At Goalhanger, he will be responsible for building the financial systems to support long-term growth.
Straw was previously chief executive of AudioUK, the industry body for audio producers. During her tenure she secured the audio sector’s first seat on the Creative Industries Council. At Goalhanger, she will oversee operations as the company expands output and headcount.
Kent Smith, formerly an associate editor at The Sunday Times and a US correspondent for The Daily Mail, takes on a newly created editorial director role. She will lead efforts to extend Goalhanger’s Rest Is… franchises into written formats, including long-form journalism and newsletters.
The appointments come as Goalhanger consolidates its position as the UK’s leading news podcast producer, home to shows including The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Entertainment. The network delivers more than 70 million full-episode streams a month.
The company has also begun to diversify beyond audio. It recently agreed a partnership with Netflix to bring The Rest Is Football to the service during the 2026 World Cup.
Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport, Goalhanger’s co-founders, said the hires were designed to support growth without diluting the company’s culture.
“Goalhanger is entering a new era , bigger audiences, bigger ambitions, and the systems to support them,” said Pastor and Davenport, co-founders. “Andy, Chloe and Emily bring exactly what we need: industry leadership, creative instinct and a proven ability to build organisations that scale without losing their soul.”
All three appointments take effect immediately.
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