Sean Martin Howard is an Australian entrepreneur, founder of

OzEmail OzEmail was a major Internet service provider (ISP) in Australia, until it was acquired by iiNet on 28 February 2005. History In the early 1980s, Sean Howard was the editor of the '' Australian Personal Computer'' magazine and subsequently f ...

, at one time Australia's largest Internet company. In the 1980s Howard founded '' Australian Personal Computer'', Australia's top-selling computer magazine. He also developed the

Microtex 666 Microtex 666 was an Australian Prestel-based Videotex system that operated from 1986 to 1989. The service was accessed through a videotex, text based dialup service from Telstra, Telecom Australia known as Videotex#Australia, Viatel. Microtex 6 ...

service that ran on the Viatel system. In 1988 he became an original investor in

ISYS Search Software ISYS Search Software was an Australian supplier of enterprise search software for information access, management, and re-use. The company marketed and sold a suite of embedded search, mobile access and information management infrastructure technol ...

, one of the pioneer search engine products. In 1992 he sold his Computer Publications business, including Microtex, to

Australian Consolidated Press Are Media is an Australian media company that was formed after the 2020 purchase of the assets of Bauer Media Australia, which had in turn acquired the assets of Pacific Magazines, AP Magazines and Australian Consolidated Press during the 201 ...

. Howard founded the pioneering public email service Oz-E-Mail. In 1994 businessmen

Malcolm Turnbull Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Turnbull grad ...

and Trevor Kennedy invested and the business was relaunched as internet service provider

. In 1996

was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. In 1997 OzEmail Phone was launched and in 1998 the company was listed on the

Australian Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

. In December 1998 American telco

WorldCom MCI, Inc. (subsequently Worldcom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. Worldcom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunic ...

took a 14.9% stake in OzEmail and in March 1999 WorldCom completed the acquisition for a total of $520 million. In July 2002 WorldCom declared bankruptcy and sold the Australian ISP business to

iiNet iiNet Limited is an Australian internet service provider that sells NBN plans and services on its ULTRA Broadband Cable, FTTB and VDSL2 networks. It was acquired by TPG Telecom in July 2020. iiNet was acquired by TPG in September 2015 for $ ...

in 2005 for $110 million. In 2000 Howard joined the board of the telco

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited (commonly referred to as Optus) is an Australian telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean telecommunications company Singte ...

as a non-executive director. He was a director of the WebCentral Group, a web and application hosting company when it was taken over by

Melbourne IT Webcentral, formerly known as Melbourne IT Group, is an Australian digital services provider. It is a publicly-traded company that was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange () in December 1999. It provides internet domain registration, ...

in 2006. At the 2015 Australia Day Honours, Howard was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to a range of charitable organisations, particularly youth welfare and medical research, as a major benefactor and supporter, and to business.

References

Living people Australian company founders Officers of the Order of Australia Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-business-bio-stub