Sam Morgan (entrepreneur)
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| Sam Morgan | |
|---|---|
 Morgan at Webstock 2008 |
|
| Born | 1975 Wellington |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, Investor |
| Spouse(s) | Talei Hayward |
| Children | Macy, Edie |
Sam Morgan (born 1975) is best known as the founder of TradeMe, New Zealand's largest online auction site, which he sold in 2006 to Australian media company Fairfax for over NZ$700 million.
[edit] Personal history
Morgan grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, his father being economist Gareth Morgan. He attended Rongotai College and Victoria University of Wellington before opting out in 1995.
He married Talei Hayward in May 2001. They have two daughters.
[edit] Professional history
Morgan worked for IT consultancy Deloitte before leaving to start up TradeMe in 1999. TradeMe kept him very busy and at one point he was living 200m from the main office on Wellington Waterfront. On March 6th 2006, John Fairfax Holdings agreed to buy TradeMe for NZ$700 million, plus another NZ$50 million if financial targets were met over the next two years. Sam Morgan received $227 million (excluding future bonuses), making him one of the richest people in New Zealand overnight. Not sure what he would do with the money, he said "I'm not a man of expensive tastes."
"One of the things we have done well is to hire really good people. If you were in charge of a company of that size and taking all the stress, then you would be doing something really wrong," Sam said.
Sam is now an investor and advisor to a number of start-up businesses and is also involved with several non-profit organisations including Medicine Mondiale.
[edit] External links
- TradeMe.co.nz
- Slow burner to online sizzler DominionPost 13 September 2004
- Fairfax To Acquire Trade Me, New Zealand's Leading Internet BusinessStuff.co.nz 6 March 2006
- Sam Morgan - the boy's done good NZ Herald article on the sale of TradeMe
- Sam Morgan explains his approach to advertising and design Speech at the Better by Design CEO summit (video), Auckland, New Zealand 2 May 2007
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