Samir Arora

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Samir Arora

Samir Arora in 2007
Born (1965-11-05) November 5, 1965
Residence Woodside, California and SoHo, New York
Occupation CEO of Glam Media, Inc.
Title Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Glam Media, Inc.
Chairman of Information Capital LLC
Awards

IIA Entrepreneur of the Year (1997)[1][2][3]
CNET Web Innovator of the Year (1998)[4][5][6]

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year for "Media" in Northern California (2009)[7]
Website
Samir Arora

Samir Arora (born November 5, 1965) is best known as a veteran of Apple Computer, Inc. from 1983 to 1992; the founder, CEO and Chairman of the web design company NetObjects, Inc. from 1995 to 2001, and also as the founder, CEO and Chairman of Glam Media since 2003.

Education

Samir Arora was born in New Delhi, India, as the eldest son of a wealthy Indian family and moved to New York in his teens. His father and family ran a multiple restaurants & hotels business and diversified into manufacturing. Samir Arora attended high school at St. Xavier's, the executive management program at INSEAD Business School in France, and the executive education program at Harvard Business School. He holds a diploma in sales and marketing from the London Business School and studied electrical and electronic engineering at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS).[8][9]

Apple Computer

Samir Arora worked at Apple Computer[9][10] in Software and New Media from 1983 to 1992, and moved to Cupertino, California, in 1986.

Arora wrote a white paper called "Information Navigation: The Future of Computing" in late 1986,[9] and worked on early Desktop Publishing, HyperCard and 4th Dimension systems.[4] He is known for creating the first "External Objects" specification, coined the terms "MacNavigator" and "MacBrowser" and worked on the early prototypes that lead to the making of the "Knowledge Navigator" video in 1987. Arora worked for the Chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, John Sculley, from 1987 to 1991.[8]

In 1991 Samir Arora worked on the first tablet Apple called Pen Mac. The project later was cancelled by John Sculley in favor of the Newton PDA. The operating system of the Pen Mac was created by Paul Mercer, and when Steve Jobs returned, Apple used PenMac to launch iPod.[11]

Rae Technology

From 1992 to 1995, Arora was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rae Technology (a spin-off from Apple Computer),[4] which developed "information navigation applications".[8] Rae Technology created Rae Assist, one of the first Personal Information Managers (PIM).[12]

NetObjects

In 1995 Samir Arora co-founded NetObjects, Inc. and together with a design and development team including David Kleinberg, Clement Mok and Sal Arora, created NetObjects Fusion, one of the first Web design products. This Web design software was innovative at the time of its introduction in 1996 because of the way Web sites were designed and structured.[13]

In 1998 Samir Arora was named as one of the "Web Innovators of the Year" by CNET,[4][5][6] and, together with Pointcast, was named Entrepreneur of the Year 1997 by the Emerging Business Council of the Information Industry Association (now Software and Information Industry Association).[1][2][3]

After the launch of NetObjects Fusion, IBM invested approximately $100 million in a share exchange to buy 80% of NetObjects, corresponding to a valuation of around $150 million.[14][15] NetObjects, Inc. went public on NASDAQ in 1999 with IBM staying the majority shareholder. Dependencies on IBM were high as the registration statement pointed out.[16]

NetObjects, Inc. and its products including NetObjects Fusion were sold to Website Pros (now named Web.com), a web services company, based in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. A portfolio of seven patents was acquired by Macromedia (now Adobe Systems), the distributor of Dreamweaver.

Information Capital LLC and Tickle

Since 1997, Samir Arora has been the Chairman of Information Capital LLC, a venture capital fund based in Woodside, California, USA, which invests in consumer publishing, media & technology companies.

From June 2003 to February 2004, Arora served as Chairman of the Board of Tickle, Inc.[17] Tickle, one of the first social networking sites, was founded in 1999 in Boston as Emode.com, and moved to San Francisco in 2000.[18] Tickle was acquired by Monster.com in May 2004 to compete with LinkedIn and merged into Monster June 2008.[19]

Glam Media

Main article: Glam Media

In 2003 Arora was one of the founders and investors in Glam Media - a privately held company that publishes Glam.com and a number of other related websites.

In May, 2013, Mary Meeker's Internet Industry Trends listed Glam Media as one of the Top 10 Internet Properties by Global Monthly Reach [20]

Samir Arora serves as Chairman and CEO of Glam Media.

Awards

Samir Arora received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award in 2009.[21]

In 1998 Samir Arora, along with Clement Mok and the NetObjects team received the Gold award of the world's best designed consumer products from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).[13][22]

Samir Arora is listed as co-inventor in 13 US software patents.[23]

For his work at Glam, he was included by min Magazine in the The Digital Hot List 2008[24] in November 2008.

Samir Arora is listed as a contributing editor of the Foodie Top 100 Restaurants Worldwide print book along with food critics Patricia Wells, Gael Greene, and Ruth Reichl and Masuhiro Yamamoto.[25]

Interests in the arts and entertainment

From 1975 to 1983, Samir was trained by Barry John, the leader of the Theatre Action Group (TAG), and took part in over 30 theatre and TV productions, including Jesus Christ Superstar (1975–76), Tommy (1978), Kidstuff (1979), Death of an Anarchist (1980), and The Day of Atonement (1981).[citation needed] Samir Arora studied theatre and music composition and wrote as well as produced several plays and musicals during this time, amongst them the plays: The Pinnacle (1982) and The Vulture Stooped Low (1984), and two musicals: The Wall (1981) and Stronger than Superman (1984).[9] Arora was one of the few members of the TAG team to leave theatre, TV and movies, and went on to join Apple Computer.

Arora serves on the board of trustees of TheatreWorks of San Francisco Bay Area and is an associate producer of that institution[26][27]

He has studied Zen Shojin-Ryori, Cha-Kaiseki, and Japanese Tea Ceremony in Kyoto, Japan.[28]

Personal life

Samir Arora divides his time between his home in Woodside, California and SoHo, New York.[9]

He has studied several forms of alternative health therapies since 1991. He is certified in body therapy (AISI) and has studied Bodywork, Ida Rolf's Structural Integration, Moshé Feldenkrais' Functional Integration, Zen Trigger Point, Berry Method, Trager Work, Energy Work, BKS Iyengar Yoga, Charles Muir Tantra, and Dub Leigh's Zentherapy.[9] Samir Arora serves as the Chairman of the non-profit organization International ZenTherapy Institute, Inc. (IZII) [29]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The Mac Observer: October, 1997 Archive / NetObjects' CEO, Pointcast Take Home IIA Awards". The Mac Observer. The Mac Observer, Inc. Retrieved July 9, 2009. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Accel 14th Stanford Symposium: Speakers". Accel. Accel Partners. Retrieved July 9, 2009. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "IIA's Entrepreneur of the Year: Samir Arora—Chairman CEO and Founder". NetObjects, Inc. Retrieved June 16, 2007. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "BUILDER.COM - Web Business - The 1st annual Web Innovator Awards - Samir Arora, NetObjects Fusion". CNET Builder.com. CNET Networks, Inc. Archived from the original on 1998-12-12. Retrieved June 21, 2008. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "The Mac Observer: April, 1998 Archive / NetObjects Chief Wins Web Innovator Award". The Mac Observer. The Mac Observer, Inc. Retrieved June 16, 2007. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "NetObjects CEO Receives Web Innovator Award From CNET's Builder.com". NetObjects, Inc. Retrieved June 16, 2007. 
  7. ↑ "Northern California program – 2009 Award recipients". Ernst & Young LLP. Retrieved June 20, 2009. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Samir Arora". Dot Commerce. SBTV.com. Archived from the original on 2001-01-24. Retrieved June 26, 2008. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Davidson, Andrew (June 22, 2008). "Glam.com Samir Arora boss is in the pink". Times Online (London: Times Newspapers Ltd.). Retrieved June 23, 2008. 
  10. ↑ "Face to Face - Net Luminary". Incisive Media Ltd. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2007. 
  11. ↑ Arrington, Michael (October 27, 2009). "Exclusive Picture Of Unlaunched Apple Tablet (circa 1990)". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved December 23, 2009. 
  12. ↑ Tessler, Franklin N., Rae Assist 1.0.2, Macworld, January 1, 1994.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) Winners 1995–1999". Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). Archived from the original on 1998-05-19. Retrieved June 27, 2008. 
  14. ↑ Sreenivas, I. Satya (May 18, 1997). "NetObjects chooses Big Blue fusion". Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal. Retrieved 2008-03-05. 
  15. ↑ "IBM Archives 1997". IBM Archives (IBM). Retrieved 2009-01-27. 
  16. ↑ "February 5, 1999 Form S-1 Filing". SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION. Retrieved June 23, 2008. 
  17. ↑ "Emode Names Samir Arora Chairman of the Board, Enters Media Metrix Top 50". ADVFN PLC. Retrieved February 28, 2008. 
  18. ↑ Juan Carlos Perez. "Social networking site Emode tickles Ringo". Infoworld. Retrieved February 28, 2008. 
  19. ↑ Vasanth Sridharan. "Monster-owned Social Network Tickle Shutting Down". Silicon Alley Insider, Inc. Retrieved June 23, 2008. 
  20. ↑ "Internet Industry Trends". Mary Meeker. The Atlantic. Retrieved May 2013. 
  21. ↑ Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award Hall of Fame
  22. ↑ "Gold Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA) Winners 1995–1999" (PDF). Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved March 5, 2008. 
  23. ↑ "Samir Arora - Google Patents". Google Patents. Google. Retrieved 2008-07-09.  See also US Patent Office Database.
  24. ↑ "min magazine 2008 The Digital Hot List: Samir Arora". min Online. Access Intelligence, LLC. Retrieved November 23, 2008. 
  25. ↑ "Foodie Top 100 Restaurants Worldwide". Glam Media. Chronicle Books. Retrieved August 2013. 
  26. ↑ "Theatre Works Annual Report 2004-05, p. 14, 23" (PDF). Retrieved July 18, 2008. 
  27. ↑ "Theatre Works Annual Report 2006/07, p. 16, 26" (PDF). Retrieved July 18, 2008. 
  28. ↑ "Amazon Book Author Bio". 
  29. ↑ "INTERNATIONAL ZENTHERAPY INSTITUTE, INC.". 

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