Alex Algard is an Internet entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of CarDomain, the founder and former CEO of Whitepages.com, and the founder and current CEO of Hiya.
Early life
In 1975, Algard was born in Stockholm, Sweden. His father was Swedish and his mother was Korean. As a teenager, Algard moved to Canada.
In 1998, Algard and Simon Han co-founded CarDomain, an online community for auto enthusiasts to share information about cars. From 2002 to 2006, Algard left his position as CEO of Whitepages in order to focus his attention on CarDomain. He remained CEO of CarDomain until 2012, when he sold the company to Source Interlink Media, a company that owns a number of other car-oriented publications.
Whitepages
Algard founded Whitepages in 1996 after purchasing the domain name for $900. He began the business by developing an online database of phone numbers. The website began to generate significant revenue through advertisements, hitting $66 million a year by 2008. In 2005, two venture capital firms invested $45 million in the company. In 2013, Algard bought out the investors for $80 million, citing a desire for the company to be free of pressure from outside investors. In 2016, he stepped down as CEO of Whitepages to run Hiya full-time. Whitepages provides fraud screening and identity verification for businesses, as well as public recordbackground checks and directory services for consumers.
Hiya
In April 2016, Whitepages spun out its caller ID and spam-blocking service into a separate company, Hiya, of which Algard is the CEO. The service provides consumers insight into who is behind the numbers that are calling them and also protects against unwanted spam and scam calls. In August 2016, Hiya entered into a contract with Samsung to integrate its caller ID and spam protection services into Galaxy S7 phones. That same month, the company announced the launch of Hiya Cloud, a network based solution designed to help wireless carriers protect consumers from unwanted robocalls. Hiya also provides caller ID and call blocking services for AT&T and T-Mobile Name ID.
Personal life
When he was a teenager, his family moved to Vancouver, B.C. He is married.
