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Edward Boddington Founder
Edward Boddington (“Bod”) founded Telescope in the UK in April 1998. The company grew rapidly and became a world record breaker with its vote management of the “Pop Idol” TV Series in 2002, on behalf of FremantleMedia and ITV. Telescope Inc. was founded in 2003. Its first major assignment was vote management for the hugely successful “American Idol,” now in its eighth season. There have been over two billion votes cast to date across land line and mobile. Telescope is based in Santa Monica with a satellite office in New York. The company specializes in participation media and mobile marketing, offering interactive services such as voting to media companies and mobile campaigns for major brands. Telescope is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvest Media Group, which is based in London. Both the UK and US operations work closely together. The group has a minority investor, Fleming Family and Partners, who invested in 2006. Bod serves as the Group CEO of Harvest. Bod began his career at Triangle Communications in 1987, which was to become the UK's largest independent marketing services company in the UK. This was followed by a two year stint in South East Asia where he was responsible for setting up Triangle Pacific. He was ultimately responsible for Triangle Pacfic's joint venture with Dentsu Young and Rubican in 1990. Bod's media interactive career began in 1992, when he joined Legion as UK General Manager. He was one of the original pioneers in automated telephony and represented the industry as a Director of ATIEP (trade association) and later as the Telephony representative of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). In 1994 Bod founded Greenland Interactive, Ltd., a joint venture between Legion, Daily Mail and General Trust, and Matra Hachette. Greenland, an automated IVR Service Provider, has grown to be a top five company in its sector. In 1998, Bod decided to take the entrepreneurial route of setting up his own company and has never looked back. Over the years, Bod has been active with trade associations and recently represented the UK Premium Rate industry in consultations with the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport regarding the gambling review. In 2005, Bod was appointed to the board of UK premium rate regulator Phone Pay Plus (previously ICSTIS). He has recently stepped down from this position after a three year stint. Bod has also been a member of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas (MEF) board since 2007.
Bod holds Diplomas in Marketing and Sales Promotion. His interests include flying, shooting, sailing, biking, and tennis. He spends as much time as possible with his wife Sally, his three boys (Ben, Rupert and Leo), and his Daschsund dogs, which he breeds. |
