Biography:Jim McKelvey
Jim McKelvey | |
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| Born | James Morgan McKelvey Jr. 1965/1966 (age 59–60) St. Louis, Missouri, US |
| Alma mater | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Occupation | Director of Block, Inc. |
James Morgan McKelvey Jr. (born 1965/1966[1]) is an American billionaire businessman who co-founded Block, Inc. McKelvey was appointed as an independent director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in January 2017.[2] As of July 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$2 billion.[3]
Early life
James Morgan McKelvey Jr. was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and is an alumnus of Ladue Horton Watkins High School.[4] He wrote and published a handbook on UCSD Pascal and Apple Pascal in 1986.[5] After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with a bachelors in economics and computer science, McKelvey worked as a contractor for IBM in Los Angeles and in St. Louis.[6] At the same time, he worked as a glassblowing instructor and founded Disconcepts, a CD-cabinet manufacturer.[6]
Career
Mira Conference Inc.
In 1989, Jim McKelvey and a team of software engineers from Washington University, established Mira in St. Louis. Their inaugural product, a commercial document imaging system, was partly developed by their summer intern Jack Dorsey,[7] who would later rise to prominence as the co-founder of Twitter.[7]
Third Degree Glass Factory
In 2000, after giving a glassblowing demonstration at WUSTL, McKelvey met Doug Auer. In 2002 they founded Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis, a glass art studio and gallery which also provides space for private events.[8][9] He talks about this extensively.
Block, Inc. (formerly known as Square, Inc.)
In 2009, McKelvey co-founded Square with Jack Dorsey.[10][11][1] Professor Robert Morley made valuable early contributions to the hardware used by Square in 2009.[12] In 2011, the iconic card reader design was inducted into the Museum of Modern Art.[13] McKelvey served as Square's chairman until 2010.[14] as of July 2023[update], McKelvey sits on the Board of Directors at Block, Inc.[15]
Invisibly
In June 2016, McKelvey founded Invisibly, a company seeking to allow consumers to profit from their online data.[16][17]
The Federal Reserve
In 2017, McKelvey was appointed as an Independent Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.[18] In January 2022, McKelvey was named as chair.[19]
Downtown North
Since 2019, McKelvey and business partner John Berglund as Starwood Group have been instrumental in building Downtown North, an Urban Insight District in St. Louis.
Non-profit work
LaunchCode
In September 2013, McKelvey co-founded LaunchCode, a non-profit organization that aims to grow new talent and create pathways to on-the-job training and employment.[20] LaunchCode partners with companies to set up paid apprenticeships in technology for talented people who lack the traditional credentials to land a quality, high-paying job.[21] In 2014, LaunchCode was named "The Best Thing to Happen to St. Louis" by the St. Louis Riverfront Times.[22] In February 2019, LaunchCode received a $300,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support education programming.[23]
Philanthropy
In 2016, McKelvey donated $15 million to the Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science to build a new computer science and engineering building named after his father.[24] In 2019, Washington University's engineering school was renamed the McKelvey School of Engineering.[25][26]
Works
- McKelvey, Jim (2020). The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-593-08674-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=_7idDwAAQBAJ.[27][28]
- McKelvey, James (2006). The Art Of Fire: Beginning Glassblowing. Third Degree Glass Factory. ISBN 0978683102. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5115454-the-art-of-fire.[29]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Meyerowitz, Robert (March 7, 2011). "Jim McKelvey Has Altered the Way Money Changes Hands. Now What?". St. Louis Magazine. http://www.stlmag.com/St-Louis-Magazine/March-2011/Jim-McKelvey-Has-Altered-the-Way-Money-Changes-Hands-Now-What/.
- ↑ "St. Louis Fed Announces Changes to Board of Directors". stlouisfed.org. December 12, 2016. https://www.stlouisfed.org/news-releases/2016/12/20/st-louis-fed-announces-changes-to-board-of-directors.
- ↑ "Forbes profile: Jim McKelvey". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/profile/jim-mckelvey/.
- ↑ Dielman, Susan (June 24, 2012). ""Distinguished Ladue Alumni Chosen for 2012 Awards Presentation"". Patch.com. http://patch.com/missouri/ladue-frontenac/distinguished-alumni-recipients-chosen-for-2012-awardcb2662c78e.
- ↑ McKelvey, Jim (1986). The Debugger's Handbook=UCSD and Apple Pascal. Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 978-0-534-06432-7.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kerth, Susan (May 30, 2004). "Entrepreneur-artist Jim McKelvey bankrolls his glass studio with his business savvy". https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2004/05/31/smallb3.html.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "About Us" (in en-US). https://www.mirasmart.com/about-us.
- ↑ Mannino, Fran (October 5, 2011). "Third Degree Glass Factory Celebrates 9 Years" (in en). https://www.timesnewspapers.com/westendword/features/third-degree-glass-factory-celebrates-years/article_75120c7b-a481-5003-bc68-82f68ba378ba.html.
- ↑ Cudnik, Christian (December 20, 2008). "Glass blowing goes public at Third Degree" (in en). https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/glass-blowing-goes-public-third-degree.
- ↑ Woytus, Amanda (2018-10-18). "Square's Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey announce new credit card technology, plan to hire for 300 jobs in St. Louis" (in en-us). St. Louis Magazine. https://www.stlmag.com/api/content/7653a1ea-d238-11e8-a976-120e7ad5cf50/.
- ↑ Calhoun, Lisa (June 8, 2016). ""Why Square's Co-Founder Says Be Wary of Advice From Successful People"". inc.com. http://www.inc.com/lisa-calhoun/why-squares-founder-jim-mckelvey-says-be-wary-of-advice-from-successful-people.html.
- ↑ "Robert E. Morley, Jr." (in en). https://engineering.wustl.edu/faculty/Robert-Morley.html.
- ↑ "MoMA | Talk to Me | Square". https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/objects/145490/.
- ↑ Pontin, Jason. "The New Money". Technology Review. MIT. http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/32360/?p1=A1.
- ↑ "Board of Directors". Block Inc.. https://investors.block.xyz/governance/board-of-directors/default.aspx.
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mckelveyjim [self-published source]
- ↑ "Client Partner (Sales)" (in en). https://boards.greenhouse.io/invisibly/jobs/5590970002.
- ↑ Bhardwaj, Prachi. "How these 23 entrepreneurs became the lesser known co-founders of the biggest tech companies in the world". https://www.businessinsider.com/lesser-known-cofounders-of-big-tech-companies-and-where-they-are-now-2018-3.
- ↑ "Federal Reserve Board announces designation of the Chairs and Deputy Chairs of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks for 2022" (in en). https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20220105a.htm.
- ↑ Lloyd, Tim (October 21, 2013). "Square founder hopes to turn St. Louis into the Silicon Prairie". http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/square-founder-hopes-turn-st-louis-silicon-prairie.
- ↑ "About - So What is LaunchCode?". http://www.launchcode.org/about.
- ↑ "Best Thing to Happen to St. Louis St. Louis 2014 - LaunchCode". http://www.riverfronttimes.com/bestof/2014/award/best-thing-to-happen-to-st-louis-2448715/.
- ↑ Collins, Leslie (21 February 2019). "Kauffman Foundation doubles down on LaunchCode's KC program". https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2019/02/21/kauffman-foundation-launchcode-kc-funding.html.
- ↑ Ebsworth-Goold, Erika (October 28, 2016). ""New engineering building to be named for school's former dean"". The Source. https://source.wustl.edu/2016/10/new-engineering-building-named-schools-former-dean/.
- ↑ "WashU announces donation from Square co-founder to grow engineering school" (in en-US). January 31, 2019. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/31/washu-announces-donation-from-square-co-founder-to-grow-engineering-school/.
- ↑ Barker, Jacob (January 31, 2019). "Wash U renaming engineering school after Square co-founder Jim McKelvey" (in en). https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/wash-u-renaming-engineering-school-after-square-co-founder-jim/article_8f402169-9ffe-5c3f-8244-77d285986147.html.
- ↑ Fenske, Sarah (2020-03-27). "Square's Jim McKelvey Explains How To Build A Business, 'One Crazy Idea At A Time'". https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/squares-jim-mckelvey-explains-how-build-business-one-crazy-idea-time.
- ↑ Woytus, Amanda (2020-03-09). "Square co-founder Jim McKelvey details how he changed the payment game and beat Amazon in a new book". https://www.stlmag.com/api/content/cc440af0-6241-11ea-8c0f-1244d5f7c7c6/.
- ↑ "Book Review - The Art of Fire - Beginning Glassblowing". June 16, 2009. http://www.glassblower.info/the-art-of-fire-beginning-glassblowing-book.html.
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