Brian A McClendon (born 1964) is an American software executive, engineer, and inventor. He was a co-founder and

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible de ...

in Keyhole, Inc., a

geospatial Geographic data and information is defined in the ISO/TC 211 series of standards as data and information having an implicit or explicit association with a location relative to Earth (a geographic location or geographic position). It is also call ...

data visualization company that was purchased by

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

in 2004 to produce

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

. Keyhole itself was spun off from another company called Intrinsic Graphics, of which McClendon was also a co-founder. McClendon was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 2015 for strategic, technical, and managerial leadership resulting in widespread accurate and useful geographic information.

Early life

McClendon grew up in

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70 in Kansas, Interstate 70, between the Kansas River ...

. His childhood home, Meadowbrook Apartments in Lawrence, is the default center point of Google Earth. He graduated from Lawrence High School in 1982 and from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

in 1986 with a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Career

Early years

McClendon spent eight years with

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

developing high-end workstation 3D graphics including GT, GTX,

RealityEngine RealityEngine is a 3D graphics hardware architecture and a family of graphics systems which was developed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics during the early to mid 1990s. RealityEngine was positioned as the company's high-end visualization har ...

, and InfiniteReality, and then worked as an engineering director with @Home Network.

Keyhole

In 2001, he was one of the original investors in Keyhole, Inc., a software development company specializing in geospatial data visualization applications. He served as a board member and later joined the company as vice president of engineering.

Google

When Google acquired Keyhole in 2004, McClendon became a director of engineering for Google Geo, a team focussed on geospatial data visualization applications. He was later promoted to vice president, overseeing the Geo team. Keyhole's main application suite, Earth Viewer, and

Keyhole Markup Language Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is an XML notation for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Key ...

(KML), formed the basis for Google Earth. Under McClendon's tenure, Google Geo products included

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

, Google Maps API, Street View, Google Local Search, Panoramio,

Sketchup SketchUp is a proprietary 3D modeling software that is used to create and manipulate 3D models. It is used in architecture and interior design. SketchUp is owned by Trimble (company), Trimble Inc. The software has a free web-based version, and ...

Waze Waze Mobile Ltd, (; ) doing business as Waze (), formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS). In ad ...

, Google Earth, and Google Earth Engine. Brian was also instrumental in the creation of Google Santa Tracker

Uber

He left Google to join

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

in June 2015 to work on mapping and machine learning.

Niantic

In November, 2021, McClendon joined

Niantic Niantic may refer to: * Niantic people, tribe of American Indians * Niantic, Inc., mobile app developer known for the mobile games ''Ingress'' and ''Pokémon Go'' * Niantic Correctional Institution, now known as York Correctional Institution ...

as a senior vice president of

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

, research and mapping

Politics

In March 2017, McClendon resigned his full-time role at Uber, though remaining an adviser, in order to return to his hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, indicating an interest in politics. In January 2018, he announced his intention to run for Kansas Secretary of State as a Democrat. He ran unopposed in the primary election and was selected as the Democratic candidate. He was defeated in the general election by Republican candidate

Scott Schwab Scott Joseph Schwab (born July 9, 1972) is an American politician serving as the 32nd Secretary of State of Kansas. He served as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, representing the 49th district, from 2009 to 2019. He also served a ...

Teaching and philanthropy

McClendon maintains close ties with his

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

, the University of Kansas, serving on advisory boards for both the School of Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He and his wife Beth Ellyn McClendon established the McClendon Engineering Scholarship at the university in 2007, donated computer tablets for electrical engineering and computer science students, and provided a Google Liquid Galaxy interactive display at the University's Eaton Hall. In 2013, he served as Grand Marshal of the University's

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States and Canada. United St ...

parade. He currently serves as a research professor at the University of Kansas, having received an honorary doctorate in electrical engineering from the university in 2015. His research subjects include

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

, autonomous vehicles, and world-scale mapping.

Awards and recognitions

McClendon received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of Kansas, "for outstanding contributions to the fields of electrical engineering and computer science." He has been recognized by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

as a Champions of the Earth in 2013, which is its top environmental prize, "for harnessing the power of technology to support conservation and green economic development." McClendon holds 41 issued patents, including thirteen relating to KML, the XML-based language schema for expressing geographic annotation and visualization in two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML became an open standard for GIS data in 2008.

Depiction in media

* 2012: ''Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks'' by

Ken Jennings Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (born May 23, 1974) is an American game show host, former contestant, and author. He is best known for his work on the syndicated quiz show ''Jeopardy!'' as a contestant and later its host. Jennings was born in Edm ...

* 2012: ''On the Map: Why the World Looks the Way it Does'' by Simon Garfield * 2013: ''On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks'' by Simon Garfield * 2018: ''Never Lost Again: The Google Mapping Revolution That Sparked New Industries and Augmented Our Reality'' by Bill Kilday * 2021: '' The Billion Dollar Code'': The German

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

drama about the creation of the Terravision program and the subsequent 2014

patent infringement A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

lawsuit against Google, contains a fictional character called ''Brian Andersson'' which is a composite of McClendon and Michael T. Jones.

References

External links

Website

NAE Profile

University of Kansas Profile

ART+COM against Google Inc.

Art+Com Innovation Pool GmbH v. Google LLC
{{DEFAULTSORT:McClendon, Brian 1964 births Businesspeople in software Google employees Living people University of Kansas alumni