Jack Dangermond


Jack Dangermond, an American billionaire businessman and environmental scientist, co-founded in 1969 the Environmental Systems Research Institute, a privately-held geographic information systems software company.
Dangermond, the company's president, works at its headquarters in Redlands, California. Dangermond founded Esri to perform land-use analysis; however, its focus evolved into GIS-software development, highlighted by the release of ARC/INFO in the early 1980s; the development and marketing of ARC/INFO positioned Esri with the dominant market share among GIS-software developers. Esri is the largest GIS-software developer in the world; its flagship product, ArcGIS, traces its heritage to Dangermond's initial efforts in developing ARC/INFO.

Early life and education

Jack Dangermond was born in 1945, and grew up in Redlands, California, the son of Dutch immigrants. His parents owned a plant nursery in Redlands. Dangermond attended Redlands High School.
Dangermond completed his undergraduate work at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, studying landscape architecture and environmental science. He then earned a Master of Architecture degree in Urban Planning from the University of Minnesota, and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design GSD in 1969. His early work in the school's Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis led directly to the development of Esri's ARC/INFO GIS software. He has been awarded 13 honorary doctoral degrees.

Philanthropy

In December 2017, Jack and Laura Dangermond donated $165 million to establish the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve on the Pacific coast—the largest ever gift to The Nature Conservancy.
Jack and Laura Dangermond have signed The Giving Pledge.

Awards and honors

Dangermond has had a strong impact on the development of GIS methodologies, the GIS software market, GIS technology research and related analytical methods. He has received many awards reflecting the influence of his work, including: