Ben R. Neumann (born Bernd Neumann; May 27, 1966 – February 5, 2020) was an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of pr ...

, film producer and

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

, best known for founding early

Internet hosting service An Internet hosting service is a service that runs servers connected to the Internet, allowing organizations and individuals to serve content or host services connected to the Internet. A common kind of hosting is web hosting. Most hosting provi ...

Internet Communication Icom.com, and his subsequent investments into companies such as iBoost.com
Globat.com
and his work in the

motion picture A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

industry. Some of Ben's more recent ventures were the

content delivery network A content delivery network (CDN) or content distribution network is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance ("speed") by distributing the service spat ...

s NetDNA,

MaxCDN StackPath was an American edge computing platform provider headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Its founding team was led by Lance Crosby, who also co-founded SoftLayer Technologies, acquired by IBM in 2013. Acquisitions * MaxCDN ( CDN), 2016 * St ...

and HDDN, which he co-founded together with business partner and protégé Chris Ueland in October 2009. In 2011, through his consulting firm Innovative Currency, Ben ventured outside the technology field and created his unique coaching programs InspireMoreHeroes and MillionairesMentor. He helped others with his innovative way of marketing and creating leads. Neumann, a former bodyguard, and avid martial artist since second grade, who grew up in Krefeld, Germany in a

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family, immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in 1994. While working on his martial arts career and after winning several mixed martial arts tournaments, he successfully built and sold his first U.S.-based technology company Icom.com at the pinnacle of the

Dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

in 1998, a move that made him one of the original Internet pioneers. He subsequently began investing into other technology and real estate companies and became involved with film making in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in early 2004, when he was approached by an independent filmmaker. The result of this partnership was '' Dark World'', starring

Michael Pare Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...

and

Theresa Russell Theresa Lynn Russell ( Paup; born March 20, 1957) is an American actress whose career spans over four decades. Her Theresa Russell filmography, filmography includes over 50 feature films, ranging from mainstream to independent film, independent a ...

. Neumann also produced or was involved with other notable films and TV shows, such as ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...

'', ''

The Apprentice An apprentice is someone who is in training for a trade, profession. The Apprentice or Apprentice may also refer to: Television * ''The Apprentice'' (American TV series), the original reality television series * ''The Apprentice'' (franchise), ...

'', ''

Grey's Anatomy ''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical internship (medicine), interns, residency (medicine), residents, and attending physician, attendings at the fictional ...

'', '' House M.D.'', '' Only in LA'', '' You, Me, Love'' and '' Smile of April''. He continued to invest in local niche companies and became an engaged community activist. In March 2006 Neumann was elected to the Board of th
Studio City Neighborhood Council
and was President of the Council from March 2008 until June 2010. As a successful immigrant

, Neumann has been quoted off-line and online in numerous ezines,

magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

and

books A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...

. For his achievements in the technology sector he was nominated for

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

's Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2000 and 2003. He died in February 2020 after suffering a heart attack.

Mixed Martial Arts Record

References

External links