GEW NZ Lead Ambassador - Founder of TradeMe

About Sam

Morgan worked for IT consultancy Deloitte before leaving to start up TradeMe in 1999. TradeMe kept him very busy and at one point he was living 200m from the main office on Wellington Waterfront. On March 6th 2006, John Fairfax Holdings agreed to buy TradeMe for NZ$700 million, plus another NZ$50 million if financial targets were met over the next two years. Sam Morgan received $227 million (excluding future bonuses), making him one of the richest people in New Zealand overnight. Not sure what he would do with the money, he said "I'm not a man of expensive tastes."

"One of the things we have done well is to hire really good people. If you were in charge of a company of that size and taking all the stress, then you would be doing something really wrong," Sam said.

Sam is now an investor and advisor to a number of start-up businesses and is also involved with several non-profit organisations including Medicine Mondiale.