Sam Morgan (entrepreneur)

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Sam Morgan

Born	1975
Occupation	Managing director, TradeMe
Spouse	Talei Hayward
Children	Macy, Edie

Sam Morgan (born 1975) is the founder and managing director of TradeMe, New Zealand's largest online auction site.

[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.