Neil Jones

CEO, Interead

Jones is the CEO of Interead, the company who created the COOL-ER, an ereader, and COOLERBOOKS.com, the world’s largest online bookstore with more than one million ebooks. After leaving a business he sold to Dun & Bradstreet, entrepreneur Neil Jones wrote a novel—and not a bad one, at that. When he went to get it published, he was held up by endless processes and mammoth bureaucracy. Coupling his frustration as an independent author with all the knowledge of the unfulfilled potential of electronic books and the gadgets on which to read them, Jones recognized an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create an “iPod moment” for ereaders. Thus Interead was born, and Jones rallied and gathered an experienced team to create COOL-ER – the elegant, affordable ereader, along with COOLERBOOKS.com, the world’s largest online bookstore with more than one million ebooks. And just like that, in assessing the current offerings from corporate behemoths, Jones created an e-reader and companion bookstore built around the needs of readers—not technologists —and is now pursuing this vision to the fullest. Jones proved himself a smart and calculated risk taker. In 2002, he took out a mortgage on his home and founded the companies N2Check and checkSURE. Through these companies, he created innovative approaches to supplying credit reporting information and thus challenged long-established and well known brands. In 2007, Jones sold his brainchild to Dun & Bradstreet in a widely reported deal. Following a successful retail banking career with NatWest culminating in 1995, Jones became a much-sought-after financial services consultant, holding positions with Cap Gemini, Sema Group, Mummert, and Entranet. In the UK General Election of 1997, Jones fought for a seat in the UK’s Parliament to represent Stoke-on-Trent Central. He graduated from the University of York with a BA with Honors in Economics. He is an avid rugby, cricket and soccer fan and currently resides in Spain with his wife and two daughters.