Bill Townsend (born c. 1965)[1] is an entrepreneur who helped launch several leading Internet companies including search engine Lycos, social networking site SixDegrees, now LinkedIn, GeoCities (sold to Yahoo!)
[2] He is also President & CEO of Ontheline Corporation, a next generation communications and digital lifestyle platform [3] Townsend earned an MBA from Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business where he held the John Schoen Entrepreneur-in-Residence chair and lectured on leadership and entrepreneurship.
[5] Townsend has founded, co-founded or served on the executive management team or on the board of directors at several global biomedicine, nutraceutical, Internet, and technology companies.
[8] Townsend served on the Board of Directors and oversaw the Marketplace division of the $2.8 billion Newegg.com company, the second largest pure-play e-commerce retailer behind Amazon.
[14] Townsend was the 1992 Republican nominee for United States Congress in Pennsylvania's 20th Congressional District, narrowly losing to Democratic incumbent Austin Murphy.