Managing Director, Paul Robson completed Medialease’s first ever agreement in December 2001. Its first official customer was Grand Central Sound Studios, who are still a customer to this day.
Before setting up Medialease, Robson originally got into the leasing industry by arranging asset finance on huge excavators for open cast coal miners in Scotland and the North. While not passionate about that industry this was an excellent introduction to the benefits of leasing and Robson felt a draw to this role of helping customers find finance for investment in kit.
After a few years, Robson moved companies to work within an industry he did have a real passion for – music recording. When Robson decided to branch out on his own and created Medialease he expanded his business to incorporate broadcast, post-production and then the live sector – and thus Medialease was born. While the firm have branched out in recent years, the founding sectors still feature heavily, and they remain really passionate about working with industry professionals and helping industry causes such as BackUp – The Technical Entertainment Charity, of which Robson is a trustee.
With two decades in business under its belt, Medialease have seen huge progression in the sheer scale of productions deployed in gigs and concert touring, which has led to much greater investment in technology. Furthermore, the broadcast market has moved on hugely too with the rise of XR virtual studios. Technology demand advances with time but the need to fund those demands doesn’t change.
At the end of 2021, following a period of exceptional growth Medialease had its best three quarters ever which seemed very fitting for its 20th year. When the business first started it was just Robson, now the team has grown to ten employees. In 2021, the team welcomed Paul Donkin as Business Development Director to support its increased growth and meet the growing ambitions of the business.