Chris Anderson

A British entrepreneur who had built a successful hobby-magazine publishing company, approached Richard Saul Wurman, and ultimately Anderson’s public company, Future Network, bought the conference for $14 million. Anderson proved a shrewd deal-maker: Two million dollars of the consideration was in stock, which immediately lost 97 percent of its value in the dot-com bust, and when Anderson left the company in 2001, he negotiated an exit deal in which his nonprofit Sapling Foundation bought TED from Future for just $6 million, a 57 percent markdown. Transferred to boarding school in Bath, England... followed by Oxford University. Initially studied Physics, but switched to Philosophy and graduated in 1978. Started Future Publishing in 1985 with a $25,000 bank loan and no outside equity investors. For seven years, revenue and profits pretty much doubled every year. Sold the business to Pearson and moved to the US in 1994 to try again in a bigger playing field. Imagine Media achieved significant success with Business 2.0 and other magazines. Eventually re-merged Imagine with Future and took the entity public in London in June 1999. The popping of the technology bubble in 2000 meant advertisers and investors ran for the hills and Future had to be slashed to its core. Half the company lost their jobs. A tough two years followed, in which saw 95% of the value evaporate.