Jack Dangermond (born 1945) is an American

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

businessman and environmental scientist, who in 1969 co-founded, with Laura Dangermond, the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), a privately held

geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...

s (GIS) software company. As of July 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$9.3 billion. Dangermond, Esri's president, works at its headquarters in

Redlands, California Redlands ( ) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The city is located a ...

. He founded the company to perform

land-use Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: fore ...

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's flagship product,

ArcGIS ArcGIS is a family of client, server and online geographic information system (GIS) software developed and maintained by Esri. ArcGIS was first released in 1982 as ARC/INFO, a command line-based GIS. ARC/INFO was later merged into ArcGIS De ...

, traces its heritage to Dangermond's initial efforts in developing ARC/INFO.

Career

Dangermond grew up in Redlands, the son of Dutch immigrants. His parents owned a

plant nursery A nursery is a place where plants are plant propagation, propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry, or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which se ...

in the town. Dangermond attended Redlands High School. Dangermond completed his undergraduate degree in

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) is a Public university, public Institute of Technology (United States)#Polytechnic universities, polytechnic research university in Pomona, California, United States. It is the l ...

. He then earned a Master in Urban Planning from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Graduate School of Design in 1969. His early work in the school's Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis (LCGSA) 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. In January 2020, Jack and Laura Dangermond donated $3 million to the Museum of Redlands fund. In 2005, Jack helped Duane Marble establish the American Association of Geographers Marble Fund for Geographic Science. This fund serves to advance GIScience education by providing awards to undergraduate and graduate student research. These awards include the "Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award," " William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography," and the "Marble Fund Award for Innovative Master's Research in Quantitative Geography."

Honors

Dangermond has received many awards, including: * Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau * Horwood Distinguished Service Award of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association in 1988 * John Wesley Powell Award of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1996 * Anderson Medal of the Association of American Geographers in 1998 *

Cullum Geographical Medal The Cullum Geographical Medal is one of the oldest awards of the American Geographical Society. It was established in the will of George Washington Cullum, the vice president of the Society, and is awarded "to those who distinguish themselves by ...

of the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are United States, Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows f ...

in 1999 * EDUCAUSE Medal of EduCause * Honorary doctorate from the University of West-Hungary in 2003 * Carl Mannerfelt Gold Medal of the International Cartographic Association in 2007 * Honorary doctorate from the

in 2008 * Patron's Medal of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

in 2010. * Alexander Graham Bell Medal of the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

in 2010, together with Roger Tomlinson. * Fellow of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science in 2012 * Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award ( Champions of the Earth) in 2013. * Audubon Medal of the

National Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such orga ...

in 2015

References

External links

Jack Dangermond, Esri President
– Biographical information on Esri's Web site {{DEFAULTSORT:Dangermond, Jack 1945 births Living people American people of Dutch descent American billionaires American geographers Businesspeople in software California State Polytechnic University, Pomona alumni American environmental scientists Humphrey School of Public Affairs alumni Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni Recipients of the Cullum Geographical Medal National Geographic Society medals recipients American technology company founders 21st-century American philanthropists Recipients of the Royal Geographical Society Patron's Medal Geographic data and information professionals

Career

Philanthropy

Honors

See also

References

External links