Jed Simmons - Chief Executive Officer

Jed Simmons has the ideal background to exploit the current convergence between traditional and new media. He is a media, Internet and venture capital veteran whose career spans from investment banking to television production studio management to cutting edge e-commerce.

Jed was a venture partner at Botts and Company before co-founding eos , the Internet development company. At Botts and Company, he launched digital media and Internet businesses where he led investment into confetti.co.uk, etranslate and ehatchery. It was with Botts that Jed originally created the idea of eos internet ventures .

Prior to Botts and Company, Jed was a consultant at Pangolin/Sportal, one of Europe’s leading sports Internet companies. He acted as a COO for the initial launch months and was an advisor to the CEO.

Before Pangolin/Sportal, Jed joined Excite in 1996 as the international managing director, building a 33 person team and businesses in UK, France, Germany and Japan. He was responsible for all areas including sales, marketing, business development, finance and production.

Jed started his professional life in 1982 as an Associate Producer at ABC Sports where he was a member of the 1984 Los Angeles and Sarajevo Olympics production team. He has also held associate positions at Citicorp Investment Bank and venture capital firm Gryphon Management. In 1989, he joined Turner Broadcasting as vice president, business development, at Turner Entertainment Networks where he helped launch TNT Latin America, Turner Publishing and the Cartoon Network.

Following Turner's acquisition of Hanna-Barbera in 1991, he became the Chief Operating Officer of the cartoon studio where he managed all operations, including marketing, administration and distribution, finance and new enterprises. He was part of the management team that led the studio’s turn-around, increasing revenues 100 per cent to $100 million and introducing five new cartoon hits including Jonny Bravo and Dexter's Laboratory. Later, as executive vice president, international, Jed launched and managed programming, distribution and marketing offices for Europe, Asia and Latin America, before subsequently making the move to Excite.

Jed holds a BA in Public Policy from Duke University and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.