Col Needham | |
|---|---|
 Needham in 2002 | |
| Born | 26 January 1967 Denton, Lancashire, England |
| Alma mater | University of Leeds (BSc) |
| Occupation(s) | Founder, executive chair, former CEO, and general manager of IMDb |
| Spouse | Karen Gaskin (m. 1989) |
| Children | 2 |
Colin Needham (born 26 January 1967) [1] is a British computer engineer who is known as the founder, executive chair, and former CEO of IMDb. [2] [3] He has been general manager of IMDb since its acquisition by Amazon in 1998. [4] [5]
Needham was born in Denton, Lancashire, [1] and grew up on Stockport Road. He attended Audenshaw School and Clarendon Sixth Form College in Hyde. He graduated from the University of Leeds with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science in 1988. [6]
IMDb was started in 1990 while Needham was working as an engineer in Bristol at Hewlett-Packard (HP). [1] The site evolved from what was initially his personal movie database, which became an internet bulletin board made from simple records, kept on a succession of early computers and contributed to by several persons, all of whom Needham outlasted.
By the summer of 1996, thanks to IMDb's first film-related advertising campaign (for Independence Day ), Needham had quit HP to work on IMDb full-time as a paid employee. [7] [8] In 1999, he collected two Webby Awards for IMDb. [9] In February 2017, Needham decided to remove the message boards from IMDb, stating that the message boards "are no longer providing a positive, useful experience for the vast majority of our more than 250 million monthly users worldwide". [10]
In 2025, Needham stepped down as the CEO of IMDb, handing over to Nikki Santoro, and shifted to the role of executive chair. [3]
Needham married Karen Gaskin in 1989 and they live in Filton, Gloucestershire with their twin daughters.[ citation needed ]
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