Jodee Rich

Jodee Rich

John David "Jodee" Rich (born 1960) is an Australian businessman, who founded Imagineering Ltd, a microcomputer software and hardware distributor in Australia and South East Asia, in 1980.

During their travels from Germany to London and finally New York in the '30s and '40s, was where the Richheimers family name was anglicised to "Rich". Jodee Rich's father, Steven, came to Australia in 1963 to manage the local arm of the family business, Hunter Douglas.

Rich wrote his first program in 1972, on punch cards and at the age of 12. He was educated at the elite Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, where Rodney Adler was a classmate. During his Cranbrook days, Rich started his first entrepreneurial venture, a business renting fish tanks.

In 1980 he developed a commodity analysis system on 64k Apple II, later sold to investment banks.

He studied accounting, economics and computer Science at Sydney University - BEc in 1981

Between 1981 and 1990 he founded and listed "Imagineering", a microcomputer software and hardware distributor for Visicalc, dBase, Electronic Arts, Lotus 123, Borland, 3Com operating in Australia and South East Asia and acquired Imagineering's sister company "Tech Pacific" from James Kennedy in 1987. Both firms were sold to First Pacific in 1990.

From 1990 to 1995, Rich attended University of Sydney studying biochemistry and attended Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as being a commercial flying instructor.

Rich formed (with James Packer as a shareholder) a service provider of GSM mobile and long distance calls - One.Tel - in Australia in 1995. One.Tel expanded its operations overseas in 1998. In 1999, Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting and News Corporation made a $600 million investment in the business as it committed to building Australia's fourth mobile network. The company acquired a GSM operation for $500 million in 2000.

One.Tel Australia was placed in administration in May 2001, after PBL and News Corporation withdraw their earlier stated support for an underwritten rights issue. One.Tel UK was sold to British Gas for $200 million and is still trading with more than 1 million customers.

Rich has been involved in litigation with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) since December 2001.

This concluded on November 18, 2009, with Justice Robert Austin of the NSW Supreme Court stating in his judgment that ASIC had "failed to prove any aspect of its pleaded case". Justice Austin also said in his judgment Jodee "demonstrated that he was a very well prepared witness, knowledgeable about the subject matter of his evidence, who responded to questions thoughtfully and clearly, sometimes even perceptively. This was notwithstanding the arduous circumstances of his cross examination, extending over 25 days".

Meanwhile the Special Purpose Liquidator continues to seek payment from News Ltd and Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd for their withdrawal of their support for the rights issue, which Justice Austin found would have kept One.Tel alive".

Believing that Social Media is creating a global collective consciousness that is rapidly shifting the power base from Big Business, Religion and Government to the Global Consumer, in 2007 Rich founded www.PeopleBrowsr.com, a service provider of social media data, campaigns and analytics. PeopleBrowsr has a 20 Terrabyte 3 year DataMine of public online conversations and provides Data, Campaigns and Advanced Analytics to Fortune 500 Companies.

Rich is also a Pilot, Mad Scientist, Skier, Blader, Kite surfer, Husband (of a banker) and Father (of 3).

External links

• www.linkedin/in/jodeerich - Linkedin

References

Notes

Chenoweth, Neil (2006). Packer's Lunch. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781741145465.