Brent Hoberman

In 1998 Brent Hoberman co-founded lastminute.com, UK’s most successful ecommerce travel company. He was CEO until 2006 and then became the chairman and chief strategic officer. He admits to being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and has founded or backed a number of other companies since lastminute.com. Strategy consultant and Internet entrepreneur, Brent is a dynamic speaker and a ”Dot com icon”. He illustrates points from his own experiences and always seeks to be provocative and inspirational whilst using humour to add some fun to the occasion. Co-host of the European Founders Forum and non Executive Director at Guardian Media Group, TalkTalk plc and Time Out Group, Brent’s initial vision remains unchanged – to delight customers with great value, inspiration and solutions when they are going away, going out or staying in. He will lead the way for countless E-businesses due to his first-hand knowledge on what gives a company the competitive edge to survive, especially in daily changing sectors such as E-commerce. His entrepreneurial vision ensures the customer experience is continually enhanced by the latest innovations in technology. Brent Hoberman is one of the world’s leading tech entrepreneurs, best-known for co-founding lastminute.com in 1998 with Martha Lane Fox. He was CEO from its inception and the team took the company to profit and gross bookings of over $2bn. 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 $1.1 billion. It remains one of the leading travel websites in Europe, and is one of the only start-up brands in Europe to regularly feature in the top 10 e-commerce sites in many European geographies. Brent is also Chairman/co-founder of made.com, a direct-from-factory consumer crowd-sourced homewares retailer in the UK. Brent co-founded PROfounders Capital in 2009. Brent’s leading industry role was recognised by several organisations – these include: Time Magazines Top 25 European digital leaders, Revolution’s Internet Person of the Year and the Institute of Travel Tourism (ITT) Travel Business Person of the Year. He also tends to appear in the top 15 of Wired’s European Digital Leader. Teemat: Internet Brand Building | E-Commerce | Innovation | Successful Entrepreneurship and Leadership | Overcoming Obstacles | Business Development & Strategy | Media & Telecommunication | Raising Capital | Seed Investing