Adam Powell (game designer)

For other people of the same name, see Adam Powell (disambiguation).

Adam Powell
Born	December 20 1976 Newport, Wales, UK
Occupation	Game Programmer

Adam James Powell (born December 20 1976 in Newport, Wales) is the co-founder of Neopets. He and Donna Williams launched the website on November 15, 1999. The concept for Neopets was based on an idea for a web site Adam had at Nottingham University in 1997.

Prior to founding Neopets, he was also involved in Shout! Advertising, a UK-based advertising company which operated the third largest click-through program on the Internet by mid-1999. He also founded Powlex in July 1999, which focused on web page design, and Netmagic in March 1997, which designed and sold online banner advertising. Mr. Powell currently focuses on the technical and programming aspects of the Neopets website.

Powell's Neopets account is borovan, which is taken from a late-80s sketch on British Saturday morning TV featuring the comedians Trevor and Simon.

References to Mr. Powell's craving for asparagus exist throughout the Neopets website. "MUAHAHAHAHA! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT! IT'S ALL MINE!" is the predominant signature phrase (For example, when one searches for "asparagus" on the search bar at the Official Neopets website, this message will appear). When users click on parts of certain games, small buttons pop up with this quote printed upon it, and "a5paragu5" is a cheat in the Whack-A-Staff-Member game. Adam has five pets, at a user limit of four. Four of his five pets on his borovan account as asparagus chias. The other is a red bori, which is usually in its "sad" pose. Some of his chias say he smells like dung.

He is occasionally called Number Six, a nickname taken from the 60s show The Prisoner, and also has a plushie (stuffed toy) named after him on the site. He also has a set of drinks called Borovans on Neopets. There is also a highly sought after avatar related to him, to get this you must have exactly the same amount of Neopoints as the account "borovan", viewable at the Neopets about us page.

Powell is mentioned in the hall of fame at his secondary school, Collingwood College, Surrey, although he had a self-described "spectacular failure at university." He is also claimed to be a former member of MENSA with an IQ of 174.

Powell has two cats in California, US called Sarah and Chani. In the UK he has four cats called Oscar, Daisy, Bill and Ben.

See also

• Donna Williams
• Neopets