Andrew John Hobsbawm (born 12 June 1963) is an entrepreneur, writer and musician from London, England. He co-founded Online Magic, a British new media company, which was acquired by

Omnicom Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City. Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer r ...

in 1997. Hobsbawm is also a founder of EVRYTHNG and Do The Green Thing. He is a member of the British Interactive Media Association’s Digital Hall of Fame.

Early life

Andy Hobsbawm is the son of the historian

Eric Hobsbawm Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...

and Marlene Hobsbawm (née Schwartz) in London, England. Hobsbawm attended sixth form college in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada, but did not go on to university to obtain a degree. He joined a rock band, Tin Gods, after leaving school.

Career

While playing with Tin Gods, Hobsbawm responded to a newspaper ad soliciting entrepreneurs, which led to a position at magazine publisher APT Data. During his tenure there, Hobsbawm formed Internet Publishing with Eamonn Wilmott to develop the first European e-zine, PowerPC News. Hobsbawm and Wilmott co-founded Online Magic, a leading British new media company in 1995. Online Magic became the first international web agency and developed the first website that covered a British general election, GE97.

’s Agency.com invested in Online Magic in 1997 and acquired it in 1998. Hobsbawm, who had served as president of Online Magic, was appointed Agency.com’s chief creative officer for Europe. Hobsbawm became chairman of Agency.com Europe in 2004. He left the company in 2009. In 2007, Hobsbawm co-founded Do The Green Thing, a social networking site for encouraging people to lead greener lives, with Naresh Ramchandani. In 2008, Hobsbawm presented Do The Green Thing at TED in

Monterey, California Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, California, Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a popu ...

. His lecture was later included as a TEDTalk. In 2011, Hobsbawm co-founded EVRYTHNG, a

Web of Things Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

software company.

Bibliography

Hobsbawm has written articles for ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. He was also a weekly columnist on the new economy for the ''Financial Times''. He is a co-author of ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

’s'' Brands and Branding (). Hobsbawm has also written three

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

s, entitled "10 years on: The State of the Internet a Decade after Mosaic", "Small is the Next Big Thing: The Size and Shape of Commerce and Culture" and "Product Relationship Management: Turning physical products into owned digital media."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hobsbawm, Andy 1963 births Living people English people of Polish-Jewish descent English businesspeople Andy Hobsbawm Jewish English writers Musicians from London Writers from London