Ian McPhee is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He earned a

Bachelor of Mathematics A Bachelor of Mathematics (abbreviated B.Math or BMath) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for successfully completing a program of study in mathematics or related disciplines, such as applied mathematics, actuarial science, computatio ...

in 1973, and his

Masters of Mathematics Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

in 1979. When McPhee was an

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

he was a protege of influential professor

Wes Graham James Wesley Graham, OC was a Canadian professor of computer science at the University of Waterloo. Graham was born on January 17, 1932, in Copper Cliff, Ontario. His interest in computing developed while studying math and physics at the U ...

. Graham assigned McPhee to work on

Watfor WATFIV, or WATerloo FORTRAN IV, developed at the University of Waterloo, Canada is an implementation of the Fortran computer programming language. It is the successor of WATFOR. WATFIV was used from the late 1960s into the mid-1980s. WATFIV w ...

, a Fortran compiler optimized for efficiently compiling the typical student program. McPhee continued to work for Graham, until 1981 when he co-founded

Watcom Watcom International Corporation was a software company, which was founded in 1981 by Wes Graham and Ian McPhee. Founding staff (Fred Crigger, Jack Schueler and McPhee) were formerly members of Professor Graham's Computer Systems Group at the Uni ...

with other associates of Graham. Watcom is characterized as the first spin-off company to come from Waterloo. McPhee became Watcom's President, in 1986.Ian McPhee, President, Watcom International Corporation, University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics, 1995 recipient of the J.W. Graham Medal. https://uwaterloo.ca/math/people-profiles/ian-mcphee McPhee became an executive at

Sybase Sybase, Inc. was an enterprise software and services company. The company produced software to manage and analyze information in relational databases, with facilities located in California and Massachusetts. Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010; ...

when it acquired Watcom. In 1995 McPhee became the first recipient of the annual

J.W. Graham Medal The J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation is an award given annually by the University of Waterloo and the University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics to "recognize the leadership and many innovative contributions made to the University ...

, named after his mentor. Later he would chair the medal's annual selection committee. McPhee would serve as an executive or director of several more successful software companies, currently being a director at NexJ Systems Inc. He is also a member of the University of Waterloo's Board of Governors, as well as making notable donations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McPhee, Ian J.W. Graham Medal awardees University of Waterloo alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)