Matt Potter is a British journalist, speaker, creative, media and innovation leader, chief content officer, author, broadcaster, showpony, TV and radio presenter, screenwriter, nerd and fidget-britches.
He devises, writes and/or fronts TV shows for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Channel 4, the BBC and more, writes action movies for Hollywood and indie films that show at Sundance, has reported for BBC Radio from Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, co-presented Radio 1’s award-winning global travel shows, and presented docuseries and carried out investigations for the Discovery Channel and Channel 4.
He’s published five books – two for the BBC, Outlaws Inc., now in development as a Hollywood movie, The Last Goodbye, a social history of the resignation published by Constable & Robinson, and his latest, We Are All Targets: How Renegade Hackers Invented Cyber War And Unleashed An Age Of Global Chaos, on Hachette US worldwide, and Silvertail in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Matt also writes TV and movies – Hollywood and indie. He’s written series for Discovery and programmes for the BBC, and co-wrote feature documentary The Notorious Mr Bout, on the life and times of arms smuggler Viktor Bout. The film premiered to acclaim at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, and led the BBC’s Storyville documentary season. He’s currently working with Thunder Road pictures in Hollywood on the adaptation of Outlaws Inc. for the big screen.
He is a regular writer for The Washington Post, Time, The Independent and others, and has worked for 25 years for the BBC, Daily Telegraph, The Evening Standard, London Lite, Sabotage Times, Golf Monthly, Esquire, Sunday Telegraph, Jack, Maxim, the Irish Examiner, and been called on for on-air expertise and opinion by the BBC, CNN, ARD and more. His reports on cocaine trafficking in Latin America have been published in Russian, German and English. As a journalist in Belgrade, he broke the story of the NATO ‘spy’ giving away secrets to Serb forces on the web, and was questioned by MI5 as a result. He’s helped stem the tide of weapons from Russia, and got the Merchant of Death locked up. When people ask what storytelling can achieve, that’s always a good answer.
He’s also a creative leader, having worked within WPP, Publicis, Omnicom, and now Dentsu globally. As Chief Content Officer and Global Creative Solutions Lead, specialising in growth hacking, innovation, tech and the. working to help brands access the same powerful storytelling capability that makes him in-demand as a shaper of stories for the public. And more than anything, a showpony and speaker. He podcasts for the Conscious Advertising Network, and mmakes music and art,
He lives in London, wrestles with lots of things – including ADHD, his overcommitment to music, and his responsibilities as the proud but concerned owner of three glorious stick insects, and would love to hear from you.
Great book, I just read it when I was at work offshore Angola.
Due to problems to get correct visa for working there we do crew changes via Congo with a vessel. Then we only need a seaman book and no need to apply for visa in advance. Last winter (guess march 2011) we got the message that the airport in Point Noire was closed due to a cargo plane had crashed on approach to the airport. After what we heard they crashed in a village. They opened the airport right after so we were not affected. So when I read your book now, I thought maybe it could be a similar operation as you describe.
Best regards
Vaga
Norway
Matt writes: Hey, thanks for the comment – really glad you liked the book. Point Noire is legendary for these guys. Going by the date, my guess is that this was the crash you heard about, an old Antonov 12 flying under the colours of Trans Air Congo (an outfit banned in the EU, incidentally). There’s a news report on exactly what happened from Australian TV there too. Cheers!
Just read Murder Inc. Brilliant book that acts both as a action adventure and a “eye opener ” to the ways of the world. How so much is interrelated whether it’s being done of good or “evil”.
Will be reading some of the books in the glossary especially the Merchant of Death and others
Thanks for a great read and lets hope for more books like this
Hi Matt, just finished your book “Outlaws Inc” and have to say that although I mainly read novels you had me totally engrossed from the first page right through to the last. Here’s one person who hopes to see more of your work.
Regards
Robert.
I have just finished reading you book Outlaws Inc and it was probably the best book that i have ever read and thrust me and believe me i have read a quite a few in my life . The most interesting part in the book i thought was when Viktor Bout was arrested in Bangkok i just could not take my eyes off the book when i was reading that part of it
I was a military multinational Kabul airport ISAF firefighter for 6 months during years 2004 and 2005. After reading Outlaws Inc. I wan tell, I saw amazing things connected with ex soviet planes and their crews. At Kabul airport during the night ISAF soldiers could not see, if parked planes took in or out smulggled stuff. I saw three ex-soviet plane accidents, 2 of them were crash landings. Once a An-12 landed without landing gears/tyres. Even the plane was in a horrible condition after a crash landing, they flied back to Dubai next day (engines 1 and 4 were damaged, as well as the metal bottom of the whole plane). A crash landing of An-12 cargo plane happened, because the pilot was reckless and not so talented (normally the ex-soviet pilots were the most talented in extreme conditions, but not this guy) . The crew managed to jump out from the An-12 cockpit windows 10 seconds before a backdraft fire destroyed the cabin inside. Third time IL-76 denayed to Flight Control, that thty would have any problem and they asked permission to try landing 2nd time in a foggy weather. Flight control send our fire engine to check out, what was laying in the middle of a field surrounding the airport. There was 8 tyres and other parts of the gears. IL-76 had tried to land in the middle of fog and they had hit an old russian outpost before a emergency take-off. After this information flight control denyed permission to land and IL-76 had to make a crash landing to Bagram airport (US military base 80 km´s away). The crew survived and something illegal was found out from the cargo, due to NATO reports.
I just heard your interview on CBC radio Toronto Canada moments ago. What a sharp and brilliant perspective you have on the workplace, resignation and history.
Fascinating interview!
Thanks so much for the feedback Shawn – really chuffed to bits that you enjoyed the interview! Anna Maria Tremonti is such an engaging host, she could probably get a postbox sharing funny stories, so I had the easy part!
I just heard you on the CBC as well. I was expecting something irreverent and fun (as in the glorious sixpack slide out an airplane) but heard something that was also insightful and even poignant. Great interview and looking forward to a good read as well.
That’s such a rush to hear – thank you! Hope you like the book – you’ve captured exactly what I think is special about the whole subject of resigning right there. Cheers!
Dear Matt, Hello.
First of all, I would like to say ‘Thank You’ very much for your Outlaws Inc. Its a very impressive research and very interesting reading. I am looking forward to find more of your publications.
However, regarding to your book in question. You wrote about IL-76 covering a relatively long period of time of modern Russian military aviation history – 80’s-90s and so on, in association with different locations, but you never mentioned anything about Кречевицы Krechevits, which is an air base located 11 km northeast of Veliky Novgorod. Any particular reason?
Best of Luck
Kind regards
Tanya Tovey
These are outstanding ideas.
Just finished Outlaws Inc. Brilliant. I spent much of the Seventies visiting many of the more obscure parts of Africa, a bit before the “Soviet Invasion” so can relate to much of the book. Being also an aviation enthusiast, Outlaws Inc. was the best possible read!