Jim McKelvey
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Jim McKelvey is an American computer science engineer and businessperson widely known as the co-founder of Square, a mobile payments company.
Early Years
McKelvey was born in St. Louis, MO on October 19, 1965 to the parents of James and Edith McKelvey. James Morgan (Jim) McKelvey, Jr. is the eldest son of the former Dean of the Engineering School at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), James Morgan McKelvey, Sr. He grew up in St. Louis, MO and attended public school. In 1984, as a freshman Economics major at WUSTL, he wrote and published a replacement for the computer programming textbook used in one of his classes [1]. The success of the book led McKelvey to sign a contract with a publisher for a second book at the age of 19. This book became a bestseller . McKelvey spent his junior year at the London School of Economics in England and graduated from WUSTL with dual degrees in Economics and Computer Science.
After graduation, McKelvey worked as a Visiting Scientist at IBM's Los Angeles Scientific Center. While still at IBM, McKelvey also worked as a glassblowing instructor and started a CD cabinet manufacturing company. After his mother's sudden death a week before Christmas in 1989, he had a personal crisis and decided to focus his efforts on one company. McKelvey and a college friend founded Mira Corporation shortly thereafter.
Mira Digital Publishing
Founded by McKelvey and David Mitchell in 1989, Mira developed one of the first PC document imagine systems, "Look", in 1991. The software had limited success and Mitchell left in 1992. Unable to compete with Adobe Acrobat, McKelvey successfully moved the company into tradeshow publishing. The advent of the Internet decimated that business in the mid-1990's. In 1995, with the assistance of one of Mira's summer interns, Jack Dorsey, McKelvey again pivoted the company into conference publishing where it remains today. He left daily management at Mira in 2000, but remains its owner and Chairman.
Third Degree Glass Factory
McKelvey began blowing glass as a teenager at Washington University and then studied briefly with master Lino Talgiapietra. In 2000 after giving a demonstration at his Alma Matter, he met Doug Auer and together they founded Third Degree Glass Factory[3] in St. Louis.
In 2006, McKelvey wrote and published one of the first instructional textbooks for glassblowing[4] later translated into Norwegian[5]. That same year, [www.stlglass.com Third Degree] hosted the world's largest conference for art glass GAS 2006 and in preparation for this conference McKelvey designed and produced a line of all-glass faucets.
Though not originally intended for sale, the demand for the faucets eventually lead McKelvey to form another company GlassFaucet.com[6] to sell them.
Square, Inc.
Dorsey and McKelvey reunited late in 2008 to start a business together. They were working on one of Dorsey's ideas when McKelvey suggested the basic idea for Square [7][8]. McKelvey sits on the board of Square and served as its Chairman until 2010. McKelvey designed the hardware[9] used by Square in 2009. In 2011, McKelvey's iconic card reader design was inducted into the Museum of Modern Art. The Square logo was designed by Robert Andersen (*).
Public Speaking
Jim McKelvey is a dynamic public speaker. His lectures on a range of topics from art to entrepreneurship are very popular. He has been known to change presentations on the fly based on audience feedback[10] and to welcome interruptions during his talks.[11]
Current Affiliations
- Square, Inc. (squareup.com) – Director, Co-Founder
- Mira, Inc. (mirasmart.com) – Chairman, Co-Founder
- Third Degree, LLC (stlglass.com) – Co-Founder
- Lockerdome, LLC (lockerdome.com) – Director
- Kabbage, Inc. (kabbage.com) - Advisor
- LockerDome[12][13] - Directorship
References
- ^ McKelvey, Jim (1986). The Debugger's Handbook=USCD and Apple Pascal. Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 978-0534064327.
- 1 – The Debugger’s Handbook – USCD and Apple Pascal, ©1986 Wadsworth Publishing, ISBN 978-0534064327 http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5105654W/The_debugger's_handbook#about/about
- 2 – The Debugger’s Handbook – Turbo Pascal, ©1987 Wadsworth Publishing, ISBN 978-0534064341
- 3 - Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis www.thirddegreeglassfactory.com
- 4 – The Art of Fire – Beginning Glassblowing, © 2006 ISBN: 978-0-9786831-1-5 http://www.glassblower.info/the-art-of-fire-beginning-glassblowing-book.html
- 5 – Glasshandverk – ©2009 Yrkeslitteratur as. ISBN 978-82-584-0595-2
- 6 - www.GlassFaucet.com
- 7 - St-Louis-Magazine, March-2011, “Jim McKelvey Has Altered the Way Money Changes Hands Now What”
- 8 - www.squareup.com
- 9 – Technology Review, March/April 2011, www.technologyreview.com/computing/32360/?p1=A1
- 10 - http://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/kcgewstream.aspx
- 11 – http://plancast.com/p/66rv/founders-series-jim-mckelvey-square-getting-paid
- 12 - http://www.fastcompany.com/1805830/passion-play-lockerdome-aims-to-become-a-better-facebook-for-amateur-and-professional-athlet
- 13 - http://lockerdome.com/