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Member for

1 year 40 weeks

profile

First name

Simon

Last name

Murdoch

Short profile

CEO FriendsAbroad.com - online community for language learners

Longer profile

Simon Murdoch is founder and CEO of FriendsAbroad.com Ltd, the new website for people who want to practise their language skills and develop friendships with people from other parts of the world. Previously, Simon was VP Europe of Amazon.com. He managed huge growth from start up in late 1996 through to multimillion turnover and hundreds of staff, ie from founding of his own Internet bookselling company Bookpages in late 1996, through acquisition by Amazon.com in April 1998, launch of Amazon.co.uk in October 1998 and ultra-high growth through 1999. He is also co-founder and partner of Episode 1 Partners Ltd, an early stage technology investment company. Episode 1 invested and managed the $100m Chase Episode 1 Fund which was launched in early 2000 to invest at start up or early stage in Internet and technology businesses such as Betfair. Simon has also invested directly as a business angel and advised as non-executive chairman or director a number of software technology and Internet businesses based in the UK including LoveFilm (DVD rental), Shazam Entertainment (music recognition) and Commerce Decisions (e-sourcing solutions).

Interests

Internet, online education, languages, community, family, technology, IT

Blog/Website

http://www.friendsabroad.com