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Sam Owens, Managing Director - 'the little guy with the big mouth…'
After navigating his way precariously through a Cambridge languages degree, Sam spent the first 4 years of real, grown-up life at Crown Business Communications in London. There, he worked on a range of corporate communication projects across print, video, live event, CD-ROM and online media. Clients included Railtrack, BT, Egg, Andersen Consulting and BAA. The company expanded from 15 to 120 employees - and £3m to £10m+ turnover - during his association with it.
He left in July 1999 to put his entrepreneurial skills to the test. He founded netdefinition, as well as a separate Internet consultancy for the wine industry, before deciding it was time for a 'career break' - specifically a winter in the Alps… There, he (and netdefinition) became involved with Complete-Skier.com, the UK's number one ski site and forerunner of ifyouski.com. He also built a chain of cybercafés in Chamonix, Méribel and Les Arcs because no-one else had.
In April 2000, he returned to the UK after Complete-Skier.com (rechristened ifyoutravel following successful funding) contracted netdefinition to lead the content development of ifyoutravel's network of new travel sites. As Head of Content, Sam played a central role at the heart of the new organisation's senior management team, recruiting a crew of 25+ content staff across ifyouski.com and the new sites, ifyoudive.com, ifyougolf.com, ifyouexplore.com and waxed.com. His role included co-ordinating the development of content for the French, German and Danish sites and various organisational and marketing responsibilities.
Since the start of 2001, he has concentrated on the next stage in netdefinition's development, assembling a team of experienced copywriters to service an ever-increasing range of blue-chip clients. The company is currently on course to turn over in excess of £200k during the 2002 financial year.
