Simon Cowell is an English television personality, record executive, and entrepreneur. He founded the British entertainment company Syco Entertainment in 2005 and its predecessor, Syco Music (also known as S Records), in 2002. After achieving success in the 1980s and 1990s as a record producer, talent agent, and consultant in the British music industry, Cowell gained public prominence in 2001 as a judge on the British television talent competition Pop Idol.