Speaker Bio: Brent Hoberman
Brent co-founded lastminute.com in April 1998 with Martha Lane Fox and was CEO and took the company to profit and gross bookings of over $2bn. The company floated in March 2000 when the dot-com bubble was at its peak - the IPO was 40 times oversubscribed and the price increase during the process was a record for a UK company. lastminute.com acquired 14 businesses after the IPO to supplement the annual growth of the core brand which was over 100% from 1998 – 2004. In 2005 lastminute.com was sold to Sabre for $1.1bn.
Brent most recently founded another VC-backed internet based startup, mydeco, the online interiors site that will revolutionise the way we shop and design for our homes.
He is a Governor of University of the Arts College, London and a non-executive board director of Guardian Media Group. From January 2007, he took on the role of Non-Executive Chairman of Wayn.com – a travel and leisure social network with over 10 million members. Brent is also an angel investor in several internet companies including Viagogo, Wayn.com and moveme.com.