Thomas Whitfield (entrepreneur)

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Thomas Whitfield
Born30 November 1981 (1981-11-30) (age 42)
Kirkcaldy, Scotland[1]
Alma materChrist Church, University of Oxford (DPhil (PhD))
Occupation(s)biochemist, entrepreneur

Thomas Whitfield (born 30 November 1981) is a British/German biochemist and entrepreneur. He is known for the dietary supplement TRX2 and his work on DesignTheTime.com.[1][2]

Biography[edit]

Thomas Whitfield was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland.[1][2] He spent his childhood and early schooling in Germany as his mother is German.[1] He holds a DPhil (PhD) in Biochemistry from Christ Church, University of Oxford.[3][4] Being an Idea Idol of University of Oxford,[4] he was selected as one of the 2009 Flying Start Global Entrepreneurs by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) of Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), UK.[4] In 2009 he was selected as a Kauffman Foundation Global Scholar.[5]

Business Ventures[edit]

Designthetime.com (Miomi.com)[edit]

He was a co-founder and director[6] of DesignTheTime.com[7]"[8])[9] (later called Miomi.com) which plots user-generated personal histories.[6][10][11][4][7][9][12][13] The website attracted vast media attention throughout Europe and was ranked as one of the Top 10 UK Web 2.0 startups in 2007[14] with co-operation agreements including Microsoft,[7][15][16][17] Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation),[4][11][17] Brockhaus[13] and the British Library.[4] Despite its popularity the website went offline in 2008 for unknown reasons.

Oxfords Biolabs and TRX2[edit]

In 2009 Whitfield founded the company Oxford Biolabs.[1] In 2011 its first product TRX2 (trichos=hair in ancient Greek; 2=second generation),[1] a dietary supplement became publicly available.[2]

Coverage in Popular Media[edit]

Work of Whitfield has been featured in The Daily Telegraph[1][2][18] several times, as well as in The Observer,[19] CNN,[8] New Scientist,[20] Der Spiegel,[21] RTL[22] and Tagesschau[23] In 2007 he has been featured during the Google Zeitgeist Entrepreneur of the Year conference.[24]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Tyler, Richard (16 January 2009). "Thomas Whitfield: The Oxford student who plans to make baldness a thing of the past". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d Tyler, Richard (9 January 2011). "Thomas Whitfield's German roots help hair loss product launch". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  3. ^ "ChCh Grad wins $100m backing". Christ Church News. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Flying start for young entrepreneur". University of Oxford News. United Kingdom. 16 January 2009. Archived from the original (Web) on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  5. ^ "Meet the 2009 Scholars and Faculty". Global Scholar Program. Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. 2009. Archived from the original (Web) on 23 December 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  6. ^ a b "Miomi – Geschichte selbst schreiben" (Web). Goldem.de (in German). Germany. 12 October 2007. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  7. ^ a b c "Judges back a winner with their own money in Idea Idol competition". United Kingdom. University of Oxford. 20 February 2007. Archived from the original (Web) on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  8. ^ a b Walker, Peter (20 February 2007). "The business boat race" (Web). CNN.com. CNN. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  9. ^ a b "Businessplan-Wettbewerb Die 100.000.000-Dollar-Idee" (Web). Sueddeutsche.de (in German). Germany. 15 February 2007. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  10. ^ Hüsing, Alexander (12 October 2007). "miomi macht Geschichte" (Web). Deutsche-Startups (in German). Germany. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  11. ^ a b Christian Helten (4 October 2007). "Auf dem Zeitstrahl in die Business-Welt: Thomas und Miomi.com" (Web). jetzt.sueddeutsche.de (in German). Germany. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  12. ^ Von Olaf Schlippe (30 March 2008). "Jeder kann im Internet Geschichte schreiben" (Web). Welt Online (in German). Germany. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  13. ^ a b Thomas Knüwer (14 January 2008). "Internetunternehmen Miomi Die 100-Millionen-Dollar-Geschichte" (Web). Handelsblatt (in German). Germany. Handelsblatt. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  14. ^ Tech Digest (16 March 2007). "The top 25 UK web 2.0 start ups" (Web). The Register. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  15. ^ theWHIR.com (23 November 2007). "Attenda Provides Hosting for Miomi" (Web). Web Host Industry Review. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  16. ^ Katherine Hannaford (15 November 2007). "Miomi, the online timeline where you can store memories, and view the world's events" (Web). Tech Digest. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  17. ^ a b "Miomi.com: Miomi Makes History; Time browsing site tipped to be Britain's YouTube" (Web). Contact Center Solution Community. 7 December 2007. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  18. ^ Students Planning to Sell Moments in Time, The Daily Telegraph, UK.
  19. ^ David Smith (25 February 2007). "Under 30, online and world-beating" (Web). The Observer. United Kingdom. The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  20. ^ Palmer, Jason (21 May 2008). "Graduate Special: Become an inventor" (Web). New Scientist. New Scientist. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  21. ^ Von Karolin Schaps (29 June 2007). "Startup miomi Magische Momente im globalen Dorf" (Web). Spiegel Online (in German). Spiegel Online. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  22. ^ Miomi – User Generated History, YouTube.com; Retrieved on: 23 July 2012.
  23. ^ Thomas Whitfield from Miomi at XTOPIA 2008, YouTube.com; Retrieved on: 23 July 2012.
  24. ^ Thomas Whitfield – Google Zeitgeist Serial Entrepreneurship Series 2007, YouTube.com; Retrieved on: 23 July 2012.

External links[edit]