Thomas Power: The Networking Pioneer Now Building Crypto’s Most Exclusive Business Club
by AK Arora 
In 1998, four years before LinkedIn existed, Thomas Power and his wife Penny built the world’s first social network specifically for business professionals. Ecademy grew into a community its founders described as 650,000 members strong, before Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter eventually outcompeted it, leading to its sale in 2012.
That pattern — building genuine, relationship-first business communities years before the technology to scale them properly existed — has defined Thomas Power’s career across more than four decades. Today, he applies the same model to crypto and AI through BIP100 Club, an exclusive community for business owners, alongside board positions spanning blockchain compliance and AI-powered education. As with several other influence-driven figures in this space, no reliable, verified net worth figure exists for Power publicly — and his actual career is, frankly, more interesting than any speculative number would be.
Thomas Power: Quick Overview
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | February 1964, Surrey, England |
| Education | HND Business, Finance & Marketing, Croydon College |
| Co-founded | Ecademy (1998, with wife Penny Power), sold 2012 |
| Current venture | BIP100 Club (exclusive business networking community) |
| Current board roles | AI Bitcoin, Genius Group Limited |
| Past board roles | BT Group, QXL Ricardo plc, Team Blockchain, 9 Spokes, BICRA |
| Books published | 7, including “Tokenomics: The Crypto Shift of Blockchains, ICOs, and Tokens” |
| Career span | Over 40 years, 60+ countries |
From a Flat Above Two Shops to Alan Sugar’s Amstrad
Thomas Power was born in February 1964 and raised in Surrey, England, in a flat situated directly above two retail shops his parents owned and operated. He has described this environment as formative — observing the daily mechanics of commerce from childhood, learning the value of hands-on work before he was old enough to join the workforce himself.
He completed his HND in Business, Finance and Marketing at Croydon College, before joining Amstrad, the electronics company led by Lord Alan Sugar — later widely known as the host of the UK’s “The Apprentice” — in 1986. Power has referred to himself as “The Original Apprentice,” having learned directly from Sugar before leaving Amstrad in 1988 to start his own venture.
At age 24, he co-founded The PAR Group PLC alongside Richard Alberg and Mike Raybone — his first independent business venture, launching what would become a 30-year career spanning company building and board membership across multiple organisations.
Ecademy: Building Professional Networking Before LinkedIn Existed
In 1998, Power and his wife Penny Power (later awarded an OBE in 2014 for services to entrepreneurship) co-founded Ecademy, alongside CEO Glenn Watkins — an online social network built specifically for business professionals, predating LinkedIn by several years.
Ecademy grew to connect entrepreneurs and business owners across more than 50 countries, with Power and his wife consistently citing a membership figure of approximately 650,000 across the platform’s 14-year history. It is worth noting directly: Wikipedia’s account of Penny Power’s career cites a significantly lower figure of 3,011 paying members as of May 2011, shortly before the platform’s eventual sale — a notable discrepancy between the commonly cited total membership figure and the smaller base of actively paying members, which is worth flagging for anyone evaluating the platform’s commercial scale precisely.
As competing platforms — Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Myspace — gained traction through the 2000s, Ecademy’s growth slowed. The company was sold to SunZu, owned by Lyndon Wood, in 2012, ending Power’s direct involvement after fourteen years of what he has since called “every sinew in my mind and body” invested into the platform.
From Microsoft Strategist to Blockchain Board Member
Following Ecademy’s sale, Power built a career as a social media business strategist, working with major technology companies including Microsoft and Accenture, and serving as a Google+ Community Director — roles that kept him directly embedded within the evolving social and digital technology landscape rather than purely speaking about it from the outside.
His interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency led him to join the Board of Directors of Team Blockchain, a company providing technical expertise and advisory services to help organisations understand blockchain technology, and separately to a board position with the Blockchain Industry Compliance and Regulation Association (BICRA). Read our crypto laws by country guide for the broader regulatory landscape organisations like BICRA engage with. He has also served on the boards of 9 Spokes (cloud-based business analytics), QXL Ricardo plc, and BT Group, reflecting a board career spanning well beyond crypto into broader technology and telecommunications sectors. Read our what is blockchain technology guide for background on the technology Power has advised on across multiple board positions.
Power has been recognised within crypto media circles, at one point voted among the top crypto experts globally by industry rankings, reflecting his sustained public commentary and speaking engagements on the topic across more than a thousand events in over 50 countries.
Author of Seven Books, Including a Crypto-Specific Title
Power has published seven books spanning networking, business strategy, and crypto-specific themes:
- “Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me: What Online Social Networking Means for You and Your Business”
- “A Friend in Every City – One Global Family – A Networking Vision for the Twenty-First Century”
- “Networking For Life”
- “Tokenomics: The Crypto Shift of Blockchains, ICOs, and Tokens”
- “Ecosystem: Living the 12 Principles of Networked Business”
- “E-Business to the Power of 12: The Principles of Competition”
- “Financial Management”
“Tokenomics” specifically reflects his direct engagement with blockchain economics, covering how cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and tokens function within broader business and financial systems — written for a business audience seeking to understand the space rather than purely technical crypto practitioners.
BIP100 Club: Applying the Ecademy Model to AI and Crypto
As of 2026, Power’s primary venture is the BIP100 Club, an intentionally exclusive networking community for business owners, built around fostering genuine personal and professional relationships rather than purely transactional networking. Over a four-year period, Power has personally connected with approximately 65,000 professionals, selecting over 250 individuals to join the club’s more intimate inner circle — a deliberately curated, relationship-first model directly echoing Ecademy’s original founding philosophy from nearly three decades earlier.
He currently serves as a Board Member of AI Bitcoin, contributing insight on integrating artificial intelligence and Bitcoin into business strategy, and as a Board Member of Genius Group Limited, focused on AI-powered education and business acceleration. He has also been involved in mentoring emerging entrepreneurial figures, including podcast host and author Jay Shetty, and continues advocating for what he calls the ORS (Open, Random, Supportive) framework — a cultural model encouraging non-hierarchical, collaborative business environments designed to reduce operational friction and increase long-term resilience.
Why No Net Worth Figure Exists — And What That Reflects
Unlike many figures profiled in crypto media for specific token holdings or company equity stakes, Power’s career has been built primarily around relationship-building, board advisory roles, speaking engagements, and authorship — income sources that are inherently difficult to aggregate into a single, verifiable net worth figure from public information alone.
No credible, sourced net worth estimate exists for Power publicly. Given the diversity of his board compensation across more than a dozen organisations over four decades, alongside book royalties and speaking fees, any specific dollar figure attributed to him would necessarily be speculative rather than grounded in disclosed financial information.
Thomas Power Career Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1964 | Born in Surrey, England |
| 1986 | Joins Amstrad under Alan Sugar |
| 1988 | Leaves Amstrad; co-founds The PAR Group PLC |
| 1998 | Co-founds Ecademy with wife Penny Power |
| 2012 | Ecademy sold to SunZu |
| 2010s | Serves on boards including Team Blockchain, BICRA, 9 Spokes |
| 2020s | Publishes “Tokenomics”; joins AI Bitcoin and Genius Group boards |
| 2026 | Builds BIP100 Club; continues board advisory work |
FAQs
What is Thomas Power’s net worth?
No reliable, publicly available net worth figure exists for Thomas Power. His career has been built primarily through board advisory roles, speaking engagements, authorship, and entrepreneurship rather than disclosed personal investment holdings.
What was Ecademy?
Ecademy was an online social network for business professionals, co-founded by Thomas and Penny Power in 1998 — years before LinkedIn existed. It grew to a commonly cited 650,000 members across more than 50 countries before being sold in 2012, though some sources cite a significantly smaller number of actively paying members shortly before the sale.
What is BIP100 Club?
BIP100 Club is Thomas Power’s current venture, an exclusive networking community for business owners built around fostering genuine, high-trust personal and professional relationships, modelled on the same relationship-first philosophy that originally drove Ecademy.
What crypto-related boards has Thomas Power served on?
He currently serves as a Board Member of AI Bitcoin and has previously served on the boards of Team Blockchain and the Blockchain Industry Compliance and Regulation Association (BICRA).
What did Thomas Power write about crypto?
He authored “Tokenomics: The Crypto Shift of Blockchains, ICOs, and Tokens,” one of seven books he has published, aimed at helping business audiences understand how cryptocurrencies and tokens function within broader financial and business systems.
What is the ORS framework Thomas Power promotes?
ORS stands for Open, Random, Supportive — a business culture framework Power advocates for, encouraging non-hierarchical, collaborative organisational structures intended to reduce operational costs and increase long-term business resilience.
Final Word
Thomas Power’s career is genuinely defined by a single, consistent pattern repeated across more than four decades: identifying the value of authentic, relationship-first networking before the technology to properly scale it exists, then building a community around that principle. Ecademy did this for business networking in 1998. BIP100 Club is attempting something similar for AI and crypto-era entrepreneurs nearly three decades later.
His net worth remains genuinely unverifiable from public information — a reasonable reflection of a career built through board compensation, speaking fees, and authorship rather than disclosed equity stakes or token holdings. What is well-documented is the consistency of his underlying approach: building communities around genuine connection, applied repeatedly across very different technological eras, from early internet networking through blockchain and now artificial intelligence.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. No reliable net worth figure exists for Thomas Power in any credible public source as of this writing.
