Jack Dangermond – Founder and President of ESRI.
Jack Dangermond is the founder and president of ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute), which is a private company that specializes in GIS software technology. ESRI is the global market leader in GIS and spatial intelligence having 49 offices, 11 research centers, and 350,000 organization users around the world. The company is most well known for their leading software product called ArcGIS, a geographic information system used to compile geographic/spatial data to create maps and analysis. Although not specifically considered a learning technology, ArcGIS is a powerful tool that can be used by parents and teachers to support their children and students’ learning. Students can develop their mapping and spatial analysis skills to engage in and help solve real problems.
Biography
Jack was born in the US in 1945 to Dutch immigrants. He grew up in Redlands, California where his parents owned a plant nursery. After an undergrad degree studying landscape architecture and environmental science at Cal Poly, he went on to earn master’s degrees in Urban Planning from the University of Minnesota and in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University. During his young career he worked in Harvard’s laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis and from his work there he developed the interest in GIS software. In 1969, with a small amount of personal savings, he and his wife Laura started the company ESRI. From then until now he has grown his company to become the leading GIS company in the world which has attained approximately $1.1 billion in revenue per year. Over the years, Jack has accumulated a lot of wealth and is very active in philanthropy. In 2017 he and his wife donated $165 to The Nature Conservancy and most recently donated $60 million in ESRI products and services to the government, furloughed workers, and educators. Jack has also been awarded 13 honorary doctoral degrees as well as many other awards over his long career including the Audubon Award which is one of America’s most prestigious environmental awards.
Jack is a true entrepreneur and pioneer. Once, when asked about why he hasn’t taken his company public, even with much interest from investment bankers, he said, “You have to decide who you are going to serve – stockholders or your customers. I could have stayed on at university, but I was passionate about getting the technology out to customers.” What I really admire about Jack is his perseverance and the true belief he has in his products and services. He puts the customer first, strongly values innovation, and gives back to the world twofold. These are just some of the reasons why I admire Jack Dangermond.
Links:
https://www.esri.com/about/newsroom/author/jdangermond
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1c7cd40aa1b940a4b7ded4acfb09ba4c
https://www.ft.com/content/5744ba70-8ea6-11df-8a67-00144feab49a
https://www.forbes.com/profile/jack-dangermond/#4e008aaf6c6e
Having studied and taught geography, I am thoroughly impressed by Mr. Dangermond’s dedication to education. ESRI offers a whole host of products and services for little to no cost to public education. Their main product line, ArcGIS, has become the foundation of many curricula and lessons in the field of geography, from primary to post-secondary education alike. How one company managed to penetrate the entire market in one academic field is nothing short of impressive, and the philanthropy only adds to that.
I like Jack’s story, he seems like a great entrepreneurial role model, here’s why: First, though he grew a billion dollar business, it does seem to be that he has always been a proponent of social value. He has kept his company private (this reminds me a lot of Gabe Newell from Valve, who has also refused to take his company public), he has donated millions of dollars to social and environmental initiatives, and he always made his customers his priority.
Jack is a bit of an outlier in the entrepreneurial space as he decided to ride a wave, but in all fairness he did create the wave as well, so he could be admired for his rare talent of being both a successful entrepreneur as well as a successful CEO. For those entrepreneurs not wanting to think about exit strategies, Jack’s may be an interesting profile to follow.