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Noel Biderman

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Canadian internet entrepreneur and business marketing specialist
Noel Biderman
Noel at work in 2022
Born1971
EducationUniversity of California
Osgoode Hall Law School
OccupationInternet entrepreneur

Noel Biderman (born 24 November 1971) is a Canadian former lawyer, sports agent and internet entrepreneur

He gained prominence as the CEO of Avid Life Media and its subsidiary, Ashley Madison. 

Currently, Biderman sits on the Board of Directors of WonderFi Technologies Inc., a public company on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Early life and education

He is a native of Toronto, Ontario. He was born Jewish and had a bar mitzvah ceremony. His grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Growing up in Toronto, he attended the York Mills Collegiate Institute in 1986, the University of California (economics) in 1989, and in 1996 graduated from York University's Osgoode Hall Law School.

Early career

Biderman began his career in 1997 at Interperformances Inc., where he eventually became the director of Canadian operations.

In 2000, he transitioned to Homestores Inc. (now Move.Inc.), where he rose to the position of General Manager of Canadian Operations.

JumpTv

In December 2005, Biderman began a position at JumpTV and was named Head of Product Development and Marketing.

Avid Life Media and Ashley Madison

Biderman became CEO of Avid Life Media and Ashley Madison in 2007.

Responding to critics, Biderman says that Ashley Madison does not promote infidelity, "We're just a platform. No website or 30-second ad is going to convince anyone to cheat. People cheat because their lives aren't working for them." He has said that he writes the commercials for his company (which have featured two attractive people in the throes of passion, and then the sign: "This couple is married...but not to each other"), which the LA Times called "hilarious." Biderman marketed Ashley Madison as having a focus on married women, instead of married men. "I was very confident that men would gravitate towards a service to conduct these otherwise anonymous affairs. They were seemingly doing it already," Biderman told BusinessWeek. "I was much less confident that women would behave that way."

In the summer of 2015, the Ashley Madison website was hacked and sensitive information of millions users was released publicly. Biderman was accused by the hackers of failing to delete accounts from the website even after customers paid to have accounts removed. Biderman's emails were also released. In the wake of the hack, on August 28, 2015, the Ashley Madison website announced that Noel Biderman had resigned as chief executive officer of Avid Life Media Inc.

At the end of Hulu’s 2023 documentary The Ashley Madison Affair, Biderman’s lawyer wrote, “Mr. Biderman is—and was—a committed husband and father.”

“Biderman was also the victim of a crime, like the customers of Ashley Madison whose public information was hacked and publicized,” the statement continued. “While he understands the differences between himself and those customers, he — like many of them — have, in the intervening years, attempted to move on and repair the damage to his life and relationships.

Coaching Career

A former basketball, volleyball, and football player, Biderman began coaching youth sports in 2012 with the Metro Toronto Wildcats TAP program, leading two age groups to two provincial championships. In 2013, he coached the North Toronto Huskies basketball team alongside the Commissioner of the CFL, earning a provincial bronze medal and a silver medal.

Post Ashley Madison

Since leaving the dating site, Biderman has transitioned to leading Avenue Insights, a Toronto-based software company that assists small to mid-size organizations in improving data collection. He has also advised companies, including those in legal tech and online dating.

Biderman's story is recounted in Netflix’s Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, which explores the rise, fall, and revival of the controversial dating service. Currently, Biderman sits on the Board of Directors of WonderFi Technologies Inc., a public company on the Toronto Stock Exchange and public company (Flowr).

Media appearances

Biderman has appeared on The Tyra Banks Show, The View, Larry King Live, GluckRadio, and Rogers TV's Daytime York Region. Biderman also served as a judge for the Miss Tiger Woods mistress pageant on The Howard Stern Show, which was sponsored by Ashley Madison.

In an interview with comedian Amy Schumer, Biderman stated that wives gaining weight "is a legitimate reason" for husbands to seek sex outside their marriages. He told Australia's A Current Affair program that if he found out that his own wife was accessing his cheater's site, "I would be devastated."

Speech and publication

He authored Cheaters Prosper: How Infidelity Will Save the Modern Marriage, SmartCountry (fiction), and Adultropology (non-fiction). He has spoken at TEDx and participated in a debate on family values at Fellowship Church.

Personal life

Noel Biderman is Jewish, as stated in multiple interviews. He is the author of a book titled Cheaters Prosper: How Infidelity Will Save the Modern Marriage.

Biderman has played basketball, volleyball, football, tennis and hockey throughout the majority of his life. He also collects ancient coins and first-edition novels.

Biderman married Amanda Biderman in 2003, and the couple have two children. Amanda is originally from South Africa, and has a background in marketing. Prior to the hack, Biderman mentioned he is a happily married father of two and does not himself cheat. It has been alleged, through e-mails leaked during the hack, that Biderman carried on several extramarital affairs over the course of his marriage.

References

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