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 (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The ...

businessman and environmental scientist, who co-founded, with Laura Dangermond, in 1969 the

Environmental Systems Research Institute Esri (; Environmental Systems Research Institute) is an American multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company. It is best known for its ArcGIS products. With a 43% market share, Esri is the world's leading supplier of GIS ...

(Esri), a privately held

geographic information system A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a ...

s (GIS) software company. As of October 2021, his net worth was estimated at US$8.6 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 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 census. The city is located approximately west of Palm Springs and east of Lo ...

. He founded the company 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'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 1999 and originally was released as ARC/INFO, a command line based GIS system for mani ...

, 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 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, CPP, or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo. See the ''name'' section of this article for more info ...

. He then earned a Master in Urban Planning from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

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 The Giving Pledge is a campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has 236 signatories from 28 countries. Most of the signatories of the pledge are billionaires, a ...

. In January 2020, Jack and Laura Dangermond donated $3 million to the Museum of Redlands fund.

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 The John Wesley Powell Award is a United States Geological Survey (USGS) honor award that recognizes an individual or group, not employed by the U.S. federal government, for noteworthy contributions to the objectives and mission of the USGS. The aw ...

of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1996 * Anderson Medal of the

Association of American Geographers The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. The ...

in 1998 * Cullum Geographical Medal 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 Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...

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 The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...

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 (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...

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

Champions of the Earth The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established Champions of the Earth in 2005 as an annual awards programme to recognize outstanding environmental leaders from the public and private sectors, and from civil society. Award details T ...

) in 2013.

References

External links

Cultivating His Plants, and His Company, The New York Times, 2011

Fact-Checking 'Corner Office', The Atlantic, 2011

* ttps://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/11/AR2010061105755.html The Passion and the Perseverance to Succeed, The Washington Post, 2010
Computerworld Interview
Q&A: Esri's Jack Dangermond on Cloud, Big Data and Apple-vs-Google Map Wars (July 2012)

Cultivating His Plants, and His Company (July 2011)
Investor's Business Daily article
Jack Dangermond's Digital Mapping Lays It All Out (August 2009)
Jack Dangermond, Esri President
– Biographical information on Esri's Web site

– Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) Advisory Board members * Dangermon
talks about various topics
on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour {{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 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 Giving Pledgers 21st-century philanthropists Recipients of the Royal Geographical Society Patron's Medal Geographic data and information professionals