– Julian Bourne
Company: Proxpro Inc.
Position: CEO
Age: 39
Education: Bachelor’s in economics and public administration, University of London.
Julian Bourne is a Renaissance man in the digital era. The English-born CEO and founder of Proxpro Inc. in Weston is a former cricketer at the University of London whose present interests include current affairs, dog obedience, shooting game, philosophy and classic literature – primarily “old books” from England and Russia.
He readily admits that he’s “gone native” since moving to Boston in May 2001 to turn around an ailing U.S. division within The Morgan Crucible Co., a U.K.-based maker of industrial products and materials.
He has since married a New Englander and is now the proud papa of a new baby, Sophie.
At Proxpro, Bourne and his seven-person team are developing award-winning search and networking technologies for professionals, allowing subscribers to access everything from biographical information to photos of participating movers and shakers in a myriad of industries.
The product, called Research People, users the world’s largest database of professionals – 28 million of them.
Bourne calls this budding professional-social network a perfect platform “to identify people who share an affinity within any location.”
It’s also proving an effective way for Corporate America’s upstarts to climb the professional ladder quickly.
“Your social capital is the sum of your social and professional contacts,” he said. Bourne expects to double his company’s head count by the end of 2007.
Bourne is also spearheading a charitable foundation that is working to introduce Proxpro’s technology to organizations that promote child literacy and Boston’s historical heritage – and the city’s history of innovative ideas and products.