SAM HAMADEH, Founder and CEO of PrivCo and Founder of Vault.com, is a veteran media and Internet entrepreneur, as well as corporate attorney, and financial and entrepreneurship expert based in New York. In 1997 Sam co-founded VAULT.com, the web's leading career information website, upon graduation from the Wharton School and University of Pennsylvania Law School. Sam served as the venture-capital-backed company’s President through the successful sale of a majority of the Vault.com in 2007 to a major private equity firm for nearly $100 Million.
In 2009, Sam then founded the leading private company financial data provider PrivCo and has since served as PrivCo's Chief Executive Officer. PrivCo is considered the leader in providing online financial data on major privately-held companies, including startups, leading entrepreneurs, venture capital and private equity, IPOs, and other fast growing companies in the innovation economy.
Sam is an Economics graduate of UCLA, a JD graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and MBA graduate of the Wharton School of Business. His honors and awards have included Entrepreneur of the Year by Crain’s, the Harvard Business School Club’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Silicon Alley Reporter’s "100 Most Influential Media Executives," Crain's "40 Under 40" Nominee, Deloitte & Touche's 50 Fastest Growing Companies, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Young Alumnus of the Year award.
Sam has also served on the Board of Managers of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has served on the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Advisory Board for a major U.S. Congressional Candidate, and has been the official Entrepreneurship-in-Residence at the Wharton School, advising Wharton MBA students on their startup business plans. He also serves each year as a Final Round Judge for the annual Wharton Business Plan Competition.
Sam has also worked on mergers & acquisitions and on IPOs as an media & technology investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and on IPOs and securities transactions at the leading New York law firms Cravath Swaine & Moore and Skadden Arps. Sam Hamadeh also holds an attorney's license in the state of New York and is an expert on corporate law related to private companies, including IPOs, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, SEC regulations, and venture capital.
Sam Hamadeh is also a published author, and has authored 12 books about entrepreneurship and business, all published by Random House and Houghton Mifflin.
Sam Hamadeh has also been Executive Producer of several successful films, including "Made For Each Other" (IFC Films 2011) starring Danny Masterson, Chris Masterson, and Bijou Phillips, "Home Movie" (IFC Films 2010) starring Adrian Pasdar, star of NBC's "Heroes, and "Headspace" (Showtime 2009) starring Sean Young.
Hamadeh's prominent charitable activities include supporting the charity Right to Play, which sets up sports and athletic programs for children in the world's war-torn areas, recently hosting a major benefit in New York City attended by prominent U.S. Olympic medalists and New York Governor David Paterson, raising over $50,000 from just this event.