Sir Richard Branson is on Twitter

by Adam Boettiger on December 7, 2008

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Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies. Branson’s first successful business venture was at age 16, when he published a magazine called Student. He then set up an audio record mail-order business in 1970. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores and rebranded as Zavvi in late 2007.

With his flamboyant and competitive style, Branson’s Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s - as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and expanded the Virgin Records music label. Richard Branson is the 236th richest person according to Forbes’ 2008 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of approximately $4.4 billion USD.

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Luke Wilson is on Twitter

by Adam Boettiger on December 7, 2008

Luke Wilson’s film acting career began with the lead role in the film Bottle Rocket in 1994, which was co-written by Wilson’s older brother Owen and director Wes Anderson. Bottle Rocket was later made into a feature-length film in 1996. After moving to Hollywood with his two brothers, he was cast opposite Calista Flockhart with romantic designs in Telling Lies in America and made a cameo appearance in the film-within-the-film of Scream 2 (both 1997). Wilson filmed back-to-back romantic films opposite Drew Barrymore, Best Men, about a group of friends who pull off a heist on their way to a wedding, and Home Fries (both 1998), about two brothers interested in the same woman for very different reasons. (Off-screen, the actor won the girl; he and Barrymore became a couple, but parted ways in 1998.) Wilson remained in demand, playing the doctor beau of a schoolteacher in Rushmore (also 1998), directed by Anderson and co-written by brother Owen.

A starring role opposite Reese Witherspoon in the 2001 comedy Legally Blonde elevated him to a major name in Hollywood and was followed up by hits like Old School and The Royal Tenenbaums. Wilson also made a notable role in the television show That ’70s Show, as Michael Kelso’s charming and athletic brother Casey Kelso. He appeared sporadically on the show from 2002 through 2005.

In 2006, Wilson starred in Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s first film since 1999’s Office Space. Wilson portrayed an especially ordinary serviceman who is chosen for a cryogenics project. He awakes hundreds of years in the future where America is significantly less intelligent. The film was initially dropped by Fox Studios, but re-distributed in 2006. Wilson expressed his sentiments towards Fox’s move as “total bullshit”.


In early 2007 Luke took on a more serious role opposite Kate Beckinsale in the horror thriller Vacancy. In July 2007, he worked on Henry Poole is Here in La Mirada, California.

He is currently filming Tenure at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania (April 15, 2008).

Follow Luke on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/LukeWilson

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John Battelle

by Adam Boettiger on December 5, 2008

John Battelle, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Federated Media   

John Battelle is an entrepreneur, journalist, professor, and author who has founded or co-founded businesses, magazines and websites. Formerly a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, Battelle, 42, is also a founder and Executive Producer of the Web 2.0 conferences and “band manager” with BoingBoing.net.

Previously, Battelle was founder, Chairman, and CEO of Standard Media International (SMI), publisher of The Industry Standard and TheStandard.com. Prior to founding The Standard, Battelle was a co-founding editor of Wired magazine and Wired Ventures. Before Wired, Battelle worked at the Los Angeles Times and MacWeek, a unit of Ziff Davis. John is currently CEO and Chairman of Federated Media.

In 2005-6, Battelle wrote The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (Penguin/Portfolio), an international bestseller published in 26 languages. He maintains Searchblog, a daily site covering the intersection of media, technology and the internet at www.battellemedia.com.


Battelle was a founding Board member of the Online Publishers Association and sits on the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, as well as the Board of his children’s school.

Battelle has been named a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” and “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He was a finalist in the “Entrepreneur of the Year” competition by Ernst & Young and has recently been named an “Innovator,” one of ten best marketers in the business, by Advertising Age and one the the “Most Important People on The Web” by PCWorld. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Follow John on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/johnbattelle
 

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