Oliver (Olly) Bengough (born February 1975) is a British
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
and
media mogul
A media proprietor, media mogul or media tycoon refers to a entrepreneur who controls, through personal ownership or via a dominant position in any media-related company or enterprise, media consumed by many individuals. Those with significant co ...
.
He is best known for his transformation of the
KOKO music venue in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, and as the founder of the broadcasting channel
Cinémoi.
Career
Bengough opened his first bar “Lunasa” in 2000 at the age of 23
A year later, in 2001, Bengough founded the Mint Group, under which he would go on to launch 5 other venues across London.
In 2003, Bengough collaborated with
Groove Armada
Groove Armada are an English electronic music duo, composed of Andy Cato and Tom Findlay. They achieved chart success with their singles "At the River", "I See You Baby" and "Superstylin'". The duo have released nine studio albums, four of whic ...
to expand the
Lovebox Music Festival from a small monthly club night, to a festival handling over 50,000 people per weekend.
KOKO
In 2004, Bengough was introduced to a former theatre named Camden Palace that was at the time run down.
Bengough embarked on a multimillion-pound restoration process of the venue, which took more than six months to complete. The restoration process included all new technical facilities, enabling the scope of operations to be broadened to include live concert performances, club nights, corporate events and television production.
Reopened under the new name of
KOKO, the club has hosted a number of high-profile events since and is a popular venue in London.
The venue was closed in March 2019 for a major refurbishment. It was due to reopen in spring 2020, but a fire in January of that year caused damage to the roof of the building, pushing back plans to reopen it.
Cinémoi
In 2009, Bengough founded
Cinémoi, a global television network focusing on film, fashion and international style. Cinémoi launched in North American version on DirecTV in 2012; broadcasting to over 20 million households.
References
Living people
1975 births
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