Charlie Muirhead (born 29 May 1975) is a Scottish Australian serial tech entrepreneur, investor and public speaker who has co-founded 8 companies spanning music, telecoms software, outsourcing, video streaming and social media, angel investment, artificial intelligence and business events. In 1996 at the age of 21 Charlie founded his first company, internet software firm Orchestream, which he took public 4 years later with UBS on the LSE and

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

and which reached a valuation of over £1bn before being caught up in the telecoms crash. Charlie stepped down as CEO the same year and stayed on as a Non Executive Director. Charlie has been selected twice as a World Economic Forum “Technology Pioneer” and was named the European Technology Forum's "Technology Entrepreneur of the Year".

Early life and education

Muirhead was born in London, England and educated at

Bedales School Bedales School is a coeducational boarding and day public school, in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by Amy Garrett Badley and John Haden Badley in reaction to the li ...

in Hampshire. At the age of 18, Muirhead handled his first

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

of a musical-equipment rental business. At 19 he enrolled at the

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

to study

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

Current Venture

CogX

His most recent venture, CogX, is a community that brings together global leaders, the tech industry and the public to address the question, “How do we get the next 10 years right?”. The CogX Festival was co-founded with Tabitha Goldstaub later innaugural Chair of the UK AI Council, and its first event in June 2017 focused on “The Impact of AI on Industry, Government, and Society”. The conference's second installment took place during London Tech Week in June 2018, at

Tobacco Dock Tobacco Dock is a Listed building, Grade I listed warehouse located at Wapping, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Located in the East End of London, it was designed by Scottish people, Scottish civil engineer and architect John Rennie the E ...

Wapping Wapping () is an area in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London, England. It is in East London and part of the East End. Wapping is on the north bank of the River Thames between Tower Bridge to the west, and Shadwell to the east. This posit ...

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

with

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

Investment Advisers as its headline sponsor. In 2022 CogX was set up as a standalone company. For 2023 the Festival moved to the O2 Arena and expanded to over 20,000 visitors, 500 speakers, and 10 programmes ranging from global leadership and democracy to artificial intelligence, industry transformation, the future of energy, education, life sciences, defence and ethics. In May 2024 CogX ran a series of Salons and its first USA Festival at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel with 180 speakers and 2,000 delegates.

Unpaid suppliers

Three suplliers spoke to Sifted about being unpaid for work they had delivered as part of CogX, which they reported on in April 2024. Other suppliers also contacted Sifted and it was reported in September 2024 that it had now progressed to debt collectors and cort cases.

Founded companies

Orchestream

In 1996, while at university, Muirhead founded the company Orchestream, which allowed web users to prioritise their data on the Internet. In the two decades since, Muirhead has set up a total eight of startups, including NexAgent, , InterProvider, t5m, and Brave Bison (formerly known as Rightster). He left Imperial early to work on the company full-time, though he received a note from the university stating that he could return if his business idea fell through. By 1999 Orchestream was worth £1 billion and was listed on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

. Job cuts, management changes, accounting errors, and other mishaps caused the company to lose more than 99% of its value by the mid 2000s. Muirhead stepped down from his position as CEO in 2000, though maintained a position as non-executive director with the company.

iGabriel

Muirhead also founded iGabriel.net—an Internet incubator fund that invested in start-up web companies. According to ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', "Unlike other incubators, iGabriel only accepts funds from individuals, and mainly from people in the technology or media industries who can help develop the companies in which the fund invests." iGabriel.net would eventually merge with Pi-Capital. In 2001 Muirhead founded the company InterProvider. InterProvider supplied proprietary software and serviced interconnections to telecom operators, and ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine featured Muirhead as an up-and-coming entrepreneur in its coverage of the company's founding.

Nexagent

In July 2000 Muirhead founded the multi-carrier MPLS service activation company Nexagent, which secured £10.3m in its first round of funding. Muirhead served as President and CEO of the company until 2003, when he relinquished his role as CEO, but retained his role as President of the company.

t5m

In 2007 Muirhead founded the company t5m, standing for "the 5th medium". The website is an online television network that features interviews with prominent individuals talking about socially conscious issues. Early offerings included an exclusive channel run by

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

's charity 46664, which partnered with t5m for

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immu ...

. The company relaunched in 2008 to

syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndic ...

original content

Short-form content Short-form content (also known as short-form videos) are short videos, often from movies or entertainment videos, that are published on platforms like YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and others. Short-form content has become popular among young people, ...

between 3 and 5 minutes long, and distribute its own proprietary video-player. t5m combines the traditional television format of network-owned syndication alongside programs with production company-owned rights. The company also produced the television show ''Trinny and Susannah – What They Did Next''.

Rightster / Brave Bison plc

In 2011 Muirhead co-founded Rightster with Tabitha Goldstaub, a software company that automates the end-to-end lifecycle for content owners, publishers, and marketers of digital video content including distribution, marketing, and monetisation of the content. Content partners for the company came from a broad range of industries, from

London Fashion Week London Fashion Week (LFW) is a clothing trade show that takes place in London, England, twice a year, in June and September. Showcasing over 250 designers to a global audience of influential media and retailers, it is one of the 'Big Four' fash ...

ITN Productions Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washington, D.C. ITN ...

and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper. The company provided rights management through a cloud-based platform in addition to live streaming, audience development and YouTube/Facebook management services. Events that have streamed on Rightster have included the

Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place on Friday, 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. William was second in the line of succession to the British throne at the time, later becoming heir apparent. T ...

and the

Leveson Inquiry The Leveson Inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011. A serie ...

. By March 2012, monthly video views of Rightster's clients grew from approximately one million views per month to 100 million views per month. Its staff also quadrupled during that time, and has offices in London, New York City, and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. On 10 May 2016, it was announced that the company was relaunching under the name Brave Bison.

CognitionX

Charlie Muirhead and Tabitha Goldstaub founded CognitionX in 2015, after identifying the need for greater clarity in the "fast-paced" and "increasingly fragmented" area of artificial intelligence. The company launched with the stated goal of creating a "well-organised knowledge base ... about everything going on in AI, in one place". CognitionX is building a proprietary software platform, the Knowledge Network, powered by augmented intelligence. In March 2018 CognitionX was commissioned by the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

to carry out a census of AI innovation in the capital. The free, public version of the Knowledge Network empowers users to immediately access a global network of AI experts, on-demand, while the Enterprise edition also enables large firms to capitalise on internal expertise. In addition, the company issues a daily AI newsletter, authored by Tabitha Goldstaub, which has over 11,000 subscribers. CognitionX also produces bespoke research projects and has held over 60 meetups since June 2015 on topics ranging from HRTech to the future of chatbots In 2018, CognitionX was commissioned by the Mayor of London's Office to write a report analysing the AI ecosystem in London. The final report, which looks at London's unique strengths as a global hub of AI, found that London was the AI capital of Europe; highlights include the fact that London hosts over 750 AI suppliers. In June 2017, CognitionX hosted the inaugural CogX, a two-day ‘Innovation Exchange’ for 1,500 delegates discussing how AI will shape the future of society. CogX 2018 saw 6,500 attendees and over 370 speakers at

. CogX 2019, held in the King's Cross area of London, was home to over 10,000 attendees and over 600 speakers. Following loss of event revenue during the Covid pandemic, in 2022 CognitionX was placed in into Voluntary Arrangement

Awards

* Named the European Technology Forum's "Technology Entrepreneur of the Year" in March 2004 * Selected twice as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (with Nexagent in 2005 and Orchestream in 2000)

References

External links

The fast man (Red Herring – The Business of Technology)
''Time''.
Righster, video distribution an monetisation specialists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muirhead, Charlie British businesspeople Living people 1975 births People educated at Bedales School Alumni of Imperial College London