Guy Kawasaki | |
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.jpg) July 2015 atWikimania | |
| Born | Guy Takeo Kawasaki (1954-08-30)August 30, 1954 (age 70) |
| Education | Stanford University (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (MBA) |
| Occupations |
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| Children | 4 |
| Website | Official website |
Guy Takeo Kawasaki (born August 30, 1954) is an American marketing specialist, author, andSilicon Valleyventure capitalist.[3] He was one of theApple employees originally responsible for marketing theirMacintosh computer line in 1984. He popularized the wordevangelist in marketing the Macintosh as an "Apple evangelist" and the concepts ofevangelism marketing andtechnology evangelism/platform evangelism in general.[4][5]
From March 2015 until December 2016, Kawasaki sat on the board of trustees of theWikimedia Foundation, the non-profit operating entity ofWikipedia.[6]
Kawasaki has also written fifteen books, includingThe Macintosh Way (1990),The Art of the Start (2004), andWise Guy: Lessons from a Life (2019).
Guy Kawasaki was born inHonolulu, Hawaii to Duke Takeshi Kawasaki (d. 2015) and Aiko Kawasaki.[7][8] His family lived in an area outside Honolulu calledKalihi Valley. His father, Duke, once served as a fireman, real estate broker, state senator, and government official while his mother was a housewife.[9] He attendedʻIolani School and graduated in 1972.[10]
Kawasaki graduated fromStanford University in 1976 with aBachelor of Arts degree inpsychology.[10] He then attendedlaw school atUC Davis, but quit after about a week of classes when he realized that he disliked law school.[11][12] In 1977, he enrolled in theUCLA Anderson School of Management, where he earned anMBA degree.[10] While there, Kawasaki also worked at a jewelry company, Nova Stylings. Kawasaki observed, "The jewelry business is a very, very tough business, tougher than the computer business... I learned a very valuable lesson: how to sell."[13]
| External videos | |
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 The art of innovation Guy Kawasaki, TEDxBerkeley,TEDx, 21:15, February 22, 2014 | |
| Ten Words You Seldom Hear in Social Media, Social Data Week, September 16, 2013, 29:21 |
In 1983, Kawasaki got a job atApple through his Stanford roommate,Mike Boich.[10][14] He was Apple'schief evangelist for four years. In a 2006 podcast interview on the online site Venture Voice, Kawasaki said, "What got me to leave is basically I started listening to my own hype, and I wanted to start a software company and really make big bucks."[15] In 1987 he was hired to lead ACIUS, the U.S. subsidiary of France-based ACI, which published an Apple database software system called4th Dimension.[16]
Kawasaki left ACIUS in 1989 to further his writing and speaking career. In the early 1990s he wrote columns that were featured inForbes andMacUser magazines.[10][17][18] He also founded another company, Fog City Software, which createdEmailer, an email client that sold toClaris.[19][20] A collection of namesake software utilities calledGuy's Utilities for Macintosh (GUM), was published by After Hours Software in the early 1990s.[21] An edition of GUM forPowerBook systems was acquired byGordon Eubanks and was subsequently remarketed bySymantec asThe Norton Essentials for PowerBook.[22][23]
He returned to Apple as anApple Fellow in 1995.[10] In 1998, he was a co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures, aventure capital firm that has made investments inPandora Radio,Tripwire,The Motley Fool and D.light Design.[24][25] In 2007, he foundedTruemors, a free-flow rumor mill, that sold toNowPublic.[26][27][28] He is also a founder at Alltop, an online magazine rack.[14][29]
In March 2013, Kawasaki joinedGoogle as an advisor toMotorola. His role was to create aGoogle+ mobile device community.[30]
In April 2014, Kawasaki became the chief evangelist ofCanva.[1] It is a freegraphic design website for non-designers as well as professionals and was founded in January 2013.
On March 24, 2015, Kawasaki joinedWikimedia Foundation'sboard of trustees.[31] He stepped down at the end of December 2016.[6]
On April 25, 2017,WikiTribune mentioned him as an adviser.[32]
On February 26, 2019,Penguin Group releasedWise Guy, described as Kawasaki's most personal book to date. While the book is written as what could be considered a memoir, it contains a series of vignettes that include various personal experiences that Kawasaki says have enlightened and inspired him.[33]
In December 2019, Kawasaki created a podcast called Remarkable People. There are now[when?] over 90 episodes available including interviews withJane Goodall,Stephen Wolfram,Andrew Yang andSal Khan. Kawasaki has stated that he believed the podcast was his best and most under appreciated work.[34]
Kawasaki and his wife have four children: Nicodemus ("Nic"), Noah, Nohemi, and Nate.[35] Nohemi and Nate are biological siblings whom the couple adopted fromGuatemala.[36]
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Textbooks from Wikibooks
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