David Bohnett- Entrepreneur of the yearDavid Bohnett, 43, founded GeoCities in 1994, which grew to become the largest community on the Internet. He pioneered and championed the concept of providing free home pages to everyone on the web, and he built a business model based on advertising, sponsorships, and electronic commerce.
David Bohnett guided the GeoCities strategy and trademark of organizing its' websites into thematic, interactive communities. All of the web sites on GeoCities are organized into thematic communities of interest encompassing a wide range of topics such as sports, politics, personal finance, music, and computer hardware and software, Members and visitors alike are attracted to GeoCities for the opportunity of interacting with like minded individuals.
GeoCities was cited by Internet ranking firm, Media Metrix, in December 1998, as one of the top three most trafficked sites on the web. GeoCities became publicly traded on NASDAQ in August of 1998, and was subsequently acquired by Yahoo! Inc. in May 1999.
David Bohnett has been recognized as one of Time Digital 's Top 50 Cyber Elite, one of Upside magazine's Elite 100, and one of Newsweek's '100 People to Watch in the Next Millennium.'
He was the recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year award for Southern California in 1999. Mr. Bohnett has also been invited to the White House by President Bill Clinton as part of the administration's efforts to encourage the development of electronic commerce over the Internet.
Mr. Bohnett's current activities include serving as the executive director of The David Bohnett Foundation, a non-profit grant making organization focused on improving society through social activism. He also manages a portfolio of investments through his investment company, Baroda Ventures LLC, and he sits on the boards of NCR Corporation in Dayton, Ohio, Stamps.com in Santa Monica, California, NetZero, Inc. in Westlake Village, California and several other privately held Internet ventures. In addition, he was named a Regent's Lecturer at the University of California in Los Angeles for the 1999/2000 academic year.
Prior to founding GeoCities in 1994, David Bohnett spent six years in the software industry for Legent and Goal Systems. He started his career as a staff consultant with Arthur Andersen. David's academic accomplishments include an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Michigan and a B.S, in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.