Thomas Power
In 1994, Thomas Power, then aged 30 was introduced to the Internet by 19 year old Ajaz Ahmed of AKQA fame and fell in love with the World Wide Web. At Urban Science Thomas introduced the world’s first real time internet auction to Mercedes- Benz for the sale of luxury used cars. The auction system sold for £2m in 1995, the year ebay and Amazon begun.
In 1996 Thomas joined TDS Group as Managing Director and took the UK rights to Trade’ex the first ecommerce platform later acquired by Ariba in 1999 for over $2bn. TDS set up the first ecommerce marketplace for BT called BT Trading Places. In 1998 Thomas took the UK rights for Commerce One and introduced the first e-procurement platform to BT called BT Marketsite.
At the same time in 1998 Penny Power founded The Ecademy Ltd as a community for ecommerce enthusiasts. 12 years later in 2010 Ecademy now has 500,000 members in 200 countries. Thomas acts as the Chairman of this vast global business network supporting Penny Power and CEO Glenn Watkins on the Board.
Ecademy’s latest development is the Ecademy Digital School creating a global community of Ecademy Digital Coaches to help business executives evolve into this digital social world. In 2002 joined the Board of QXL-Ricardo plc as a non-executive director soon after the dotcom collapse. The shares were priced at 6p per share. QXL was acquired in 2007 for £17 per share by Naspers of South Africa.
Thomas believes Network Thinking is superseding Institutional Thinking in this century. Thomas describes Network Thinking as Open, Random and Supportive (ORS) and Institutional Thinking as Closed, Selective and Controlling (CSC). ORS is Social. CSC is Transactional.
Thomas is Chairman of Clean Technology company Savortex Ltd led by the BBC Apprentice Syed Ahmed.
Thomas has written 7 books on the Internet, spoken in 55 countries and coaches business people worldwide how to Go Social online. Thomas has just launched the Ecademy Digital School to teach business people how to embrace the new digital and social world we all find ourselves in.
TedX London Video (Oct 2010)
