Dangermond, Jack

Jack Dangermond and his wife Laura are the founders of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), the world's fourth largest privately held software company. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Redlands, California, ESRI is arguably the technical and market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software. ESRI is the largest commercial GIS software provider in the world, with more than 1 million users in more than 100,000 organizations representing government and nongovernmental organizations, academia, and industries such as utilities, health care, transportation, telecommunications, homeland security, military, retail, and agriculture industries.

Dangermond initially founded ESRI as a small consulting firm/research group 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. Today, ESRI is the largest GIS software developer in the world, and its core product, ArcGIS, has direct linkages to Dangermond's initial efforts in developing ARC/INFO during the early years of the company's inception. Workstation ARC/INFO evolved into ESRI's flagship product, developed for spatial analysis, now aptly called ArcGIS, which is a desktop graphical user interface (GUI)-driven product that possesses myriad spatial analysis functionalities.

Dangermond graduated with a bachelor of science degree in environmental science from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California. He holds a master of science degree in urban planning from the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota and a master of science degree in landscape architecture from the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, where he worked in the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Design. The experience there led to the eventual creation of ESRI and its subsequent software products. Dangermond also holds several honorary doctorates from various higher-education institutions around the globe.

Dangermond fostered the growth of ESRI from a small research group to an organization of more than 2,700 employees, known internationally for GIS software development, training, and services. In 2007, ESRI had 16 subsidiaries and 72 distributors worldwide. ESRI also has 11 regional offices throughout the United States. Dangermond is recognized not only as a pioneer in spatial analysis methods but also as one of the most influential people in the realm of GIS. Dangermond explains why the development of GIS techniques and technologies has become such an integral part of his vision pertaining to geographic research and its role in society: “We are visual creatures. Seeing promotes understanding. If GIS [Page 664]helps us see what is happening in a larger, graphical context; and helps us to model and estimate change; perhaps more collaboration and compromise will result.”

If the discipline of geography is the framework for understanding, conceptualizing, modeling, and visualizing the world, then GIS is a tool that facilitates and enhances the process of integrating what we know. Dangermond has arguably built a career and a company that endeavor to accomplish this task.