Paul Bassat

For an Australian barista, see Paul Bassett.

Paul Moss Bassat is an Australian attorney and businessman. He co-founded online job search website Seek Limited in 1997 with his brother Andrew Bassat. The brothers were co-CEOs until Paul resigned in 2011.[1] Bassat is a Commissioner of the Australian Football League, a director of Wesfarmers Ltd, a board member of Rokt, and co-founder of Square Peg Capital.[2]

Career

Paul Bassat was one of three children born to immigrant parents. His father was an Egyptian-born IBM executive, and his mother was a Polish-born lawyer.[3] He attended Brighton Grammar School, where he has been inducted into the school Hall of Fame.[4] Bassat graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne.[5]

After practicing law at Arnold Bloch Leibler for six years, Bassat co-founded Seek with his brother Andrew in 1997. Their goal was to resolve what they felt were inefficiencies in the existing classified-ad systems.[6] Paul was the joint CEO of the company from 1997 until 2011, he then left SEEK to work in private equity and with early-stage investment fund Square Peg Capital, where he is involved in mentoring management teams that are focused on building outstanding businesses.[5]

In 2012, Bassat became a Commissioner of the Australian Football League. He was only the third Jewish member of the Commission in league history.[7]

References

  1. ^ "BRW Rich 200 list 2014: 97,98. Andrew and Paul Bassat". 26 June 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  2. ^ Durkin, Patrick (2 November 2015). "Bassat launches $200m venture capital fund". The Australian Financial Review.
  3. ^ Hyland, Anne (29 January 2016). "Paul Bassat's journey from start-up whizz to venture capitalist". Australian Financial Review magazine.
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ a b "Paul Bassat - Square Peg Capital". Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  6. ^ "Andrew Bassat named EY's Australian Entrepreneur Of The Year". Financial Review. 25 November 2013. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  7. ^ Shenker, Ashley; Kamien, Adam (25 November 2011). "Bassat latest AFL commissioner". The Australian Jewish News.