SAM MORGAN (ENTREPRENEUR)

'Sam Morgan' is the founder and managing director of TradeMe, New Zealand's largest online auction site.

Contents

Personal history

Professional history

External links

Personal history

Sam grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, his father being economist Gareth Morgan. Sam attended Rongotai College and Victoria University of Wellington before opting out in 1995.
Sam married Talei Hayward in May 2001. They have a daughter, Macy, born in February 2005, and another one on the way.

Professional history

Sam worked for IT consultancy Deloitte before leaving to start up Trade Me in 1999. Trade Me 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 Trade Me for NZ$700 million, plus another $50 million if financial targets are met over the next two years. Sam Morgan will receive $227 million (not counting the 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.

External links

★ TradeMe.co.nz

★ Slow burner to online sizzler ''DominionPost'' 13 September 2004

★ Fairfax To Acquire Trade Me, New Zealand's Leading Internet Business''Stuff.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