Sam Hamadeh

Hussam "Sam" Hamadeh (1971 – December 10, 2015)[1] was a media entrepreneur based in New York with business interests in digital media, publishing, and film.

Hamadeh co-founded Vault.com in 1997[2] with his brother, Samer Hamadeh, and Mark Oldman.[1] and served as the company's President through its successful sale in 2007 to private equity firm VSS, reportedly for nearly $100 million.[3] In 2009, Hamadeh founded PrivCo, which provides data to subscribers on more than 500,000 private companies. Hamadeh was chief executive of PrivCo, and also a frequent commentator on private companies for mass media, until his death in December 2015.[1][4][5][6]

Hamadeh was a graduate of UCLA, the University of Pennsylvania Law School with a JD, and the Wharton School of Business with an MBA.[2] He spoke and wrote frequently about entrepreneurship, including serving as the Keynote Speaker at Wharton's Annual Entrepreneurship Conference.[7]

Honors and awards have included Crain's Top Entrepreneur's Award,[8] the Harvard Business School Club's Entrepreneur of the Year[9] Silicon Alley Reporter's "100 Most Important Internet Executives"[10] Deloitte & Touche's 50 Fastest Growing Companies,[11] and the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Young Alumnus of the Year award.[12]

He served as an Executive Producer of films Home Movie starring Adrian Pasdar, and Made For Each Other starring Chris Masterson, Danny Masterson, and Bijou Phillips.

Hamadeh co-hosted a fundraiser for a Democratic congressional candidate with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in January 2010.[13]