Col Needham
| Col Needham | |
|---|---|
|
Needham in January 2002 | |
| Born |
Colin Needham 26 January 1967 Denton, England, United Kingdom |
| Residence | Stoke Gifford, South Gloucestershire, England |
| Occupation | Founder, CEO, and general manager of IMDb |
| Spouse(s) | Karen Needham (m. 1989) |
| Children | 2 |
Colin "Col" Needham (born 26 January 1967)[1] is an English entrepreneur who is best known as the founder and CEO of IMDb.[2] He has served as general manager of IMDb since its acquisition by Amazon.com in 1998.[3][4]
Early life
Needham was born in Denton, Greater Manchester,[1] and grew up on Stockport Road. He attended Audenshaw School and Hyde Clarendon Sixth Form College. He graduated from the University of Leeds with a BSc(Hons) in Computer Science in 1988.[5]
Career
IMDb was started in 1990 while Needham was working as an engineer in Bristol at Hewlett-Packard (HP).[1] The site evolved from what was initially his personal movie database, which became an internet bulletin board made from simple records, kept on a succession of early computers, and contributed to by several persons, all of whom Needham outlasted.
Needham continued adding information to this early IMDb by including every film he had seen since the age of 13, and with the help of the many volunteers, IMDb grew exponentially.[6] By the summer of 1996, thanks to IMDb's first film-related advertising campaign (for Independence Day), Needham had quit HP to work on IMDb full-time as a paid employee.[7][8] In 1999, he collected two Webby Awards for IMDb.[9] In February 2017, Needham decided to remove the message boards from IMDb, stating that the message boards "are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide".[10]
Personal life
Needham married Karen in 1989. They have twin daughters and live in Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire.[1][11]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Siklos, Richard (28 May 2006). "From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
- ↑ "Col Needham Biography". IMDb. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
- ↑ Col Needham on IMDb
- ↑ Shoard, Catherine (12 May 2013). "Six degrees of IMDb founder Col Needham This man has seen 8,524 movies. How does he know? Because he invented the Internet Movie Database – the indispensable cinema encyclopaedia – and put Bristol on Hollywood's map". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013.
- ↑ Glendinning, Amy. "I am IMDb: The millionaire film geek from Denton behind the world's top movie website". Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "The Movie Database By Col Needham". Eyerys.
- ↑ Finke, Nikki (5 August 2004). "Do You IMDb?". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
- ↑ "Col Needham's user profile – Internet Movie Database". IMDb. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ↑ "3rd Annual Webby Awards Nominees & Winners". Webby Awards. Retrieved 19 October 2009.
- ↑ "IMDb shuts down its message boards".
- ↑ "Biography for Col Needham". IMDb. May 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
External links
- Col Needham on IMDb
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Col Needham. |