James H. Clark | |
|---|---|
 Clark in 2013 | |
| Born | James Henry Clark (1944-03-23)March 23, 1944 (age 81) |
| Alma mater | University of Utah University of New Orleans |
| Spouse(s) | Nancy Rutter Kristy Hinze (m. 2009) |
| Children | 4 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science Computer graphics |
| Institutions | Silicon Graphics Netscape New York Institute of Technology Stanford University |
| Thesis | 3-D design of free-form B-spline surfaces (1974) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ivan Sutherland |
James Henry Clark (born March 23, 1944) is an Americanentrepreneur andcomputer scientist. He founded several notableSilicon Valley technology companies, includingSilicon Graphics,Netscape,myCFO, andHealtheon. His research work incomputer graphics led to the development of systems for the fastrendering ofthree-dimensional computer images.
In 1998, Clark was elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineering for the development of computer graphics and for technical leadership in the computer industry.
Clark was born inPlainview, Texas, on March 23, 1944. He dropped out of high school at 16 and spent four years in theUS Navy, where he was introduced to electronics. Clark began taking night courses atTulane University's University College where, despite his lack of a high school diploma, he was able to earn enough credits to be admitted to theUniversity of New Orleans.[citation needed] There, Clark earned his bachelor's and a master's degrees inphysics, followed by aPh.D. incomputer science from theUniversity of Utah in 1974.[1][2][3][4]
After completing his doctorate, Clark worked at theNew York Institute of Technology'sComputer Graphics Lab. He was fired from that position due to insubordination.[5] He served as anassistant professor at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz (1974-1978) before moving toStanford University as anassociate professor ofelectrical engineering (1979-1982). Clark's research work concernedgeometry pipelines, specialized software or hardware that accelerates the display of three dimensional images. The peak of his group's advancements was theGeometry Engine, an early hardware accelerator for rendering computer images based on geometric models which he developed in 1979 with his students at Stanford.
In 1982, Clark along with several Stanford graduate students foundedSilicon Graphics (SGI).[6] The earliest Silicon Graphics graphicalworkstations were mainly terminals, but they were soon followed by stand-alone graphicalUnix workstations with very fast graphics rendering hardware. In the mid-1980s, Silicon Graphics began to use theMIPSCPU as the foundation of their newest workstations, replacing theMotorola 68000.
By 1991, Silicon Graphics had become the world leader in the production of Hollywood movie visual effects and 3-D imaging. Silicon Graphics focused on the high-end market where they could charge a premium for their special hardware and graphics software.[7]
Clark had differences of opinion with Silicon Graphics management regarding the future direction of the company,[citation needed] and departed in late January 1994.[8]
In February 1994, Clark sought outMarc Andreessen who had led the development ofMosaic, the first widely distributed and easy-to-use software for browsing theWorld Wide Web, while employed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).[9] Clark and Andreessen foundedNetscape, and developed the Netscape Navigator web browser. The founding of Netscape and itsIPO in August 1995 launched the Internet boom onWall Street during the mid-to-late 1990s. Clark's initial investment in Netscape was $4 million in 1994; he exited with $1.2 billion when Netscape was acquired by AOL in 1999.[10]
In 1995, Clark became interested in streamlining the paperwork associated with the health-care industry. The resulting start-up,Healtheon, was founded in early 1996 with backing fromKleiner Perkins andNew Enterprise Associates.[11] Although Clark's original idea of eliminating the paperwork and bureaucracy associated with medical care was ambitious, it did lead to successes in administrative streamlining of medical records technology. However, anAtlanta, Georgia startup company,WebMD originally focused on medical content was also making similar in-roads. Knowing WebMD had financial backing fromMicrosoft, Clark decided to merge Healtheon with the original WebMD to form the WebMD Corporation (NASDAQ: WBMD). WebMD is a leader in health information on the Internet.[12]
In 1999, Clark launchedmyCFO, a company formed to help wealthy Silicon Valley individuals manage their fortunes. In late 2002, while Clark served on the board of directors, most of myCFO's operations were sold toHarris Bank and now operate asHarris myCFO.
Clark was chairman and financial backer of network-security startup Neoteris, founded in 2000, which was acquired byNetScreen in 2003 and subsequently byJuniper Networks.
Clark was a founding director and investor in the biotechnology company DNA Sciences, founded in 1998 to unravel the genetics of common disease using volunteers recruited from the Internet launched August 1, 2000 (see The New York Times). In 2003, the company was acquired by Genaissance Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Clark was the subject of the 1999 bestsellerThe New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by U.S. authorMichael Lewis.
Clark was a notable investor inKibu.com, an Internet website for teens, which received approximately $22 million in funding.[13] The website shut down in 2000, returning its remaining capital to investors.
Clark coproduced the 2009 movieThe Cove. His funding made possible the purchase and covert installation of some high-tech camera and sound-recording equipment required to capture the film's climactic dolphin slaughter.[citation needed] The film addresses the problem of whale and dolphin killing inTaiji, Wakayama, Japan.
Clark sits on the board and is one of the primary investors in the mobile technology companyIbotta.[14] Ibotta became a publicly traded company in April 2024.[15]
In 2017, Clark announced the launch of CommandScape, a cyber secure building management and automation platform.[16]
In 2020, Clark announced the $30M A round of funding for Beyond Identity, with a product that is a phone-resident personal certificate-based authentication and authorization solution that eliminates all passwords.[17]
Clark received theACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award in 1984. In 1996, he received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[18] He was a recipient of the 1997Kilby International Awards, which honored him for his computer graphics vision and for enabling networked information exchange.[19]
In 1988, Clark was an Award Recipient of theEY Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Northern California Region.[20]
Clark was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (ScD) from the University of East Anglia in 1998.[citation needed]
Clark has been married four times and has four children. The divorce from his third wife of 15 years, Nancy Rutter, aForbes journalist, is reported to have cost him $125 million in cash and assets in the settlement. Soon afterwards he began dating Australian modelKristy Hinze, 35 years his junior. Hinze became his fourth wife when they married in theBritish Virgin Islands on March 22, 2009.[21] She gave birth to a daughter, Dylan Vivienne in September 2011, and later, Harper Hazelle, in August 2013. In 2000, his daughter by a previous marriage, Kathy, marriedChad Hurley, a co-founder of YouTube,[22] they were divorced in 2012.[23]
In 2022 he made the largest residential real estate sale in Florida history, selling a 22-acre property inManalapan, Florida toLarry Ellison for approximately $175 million. Clark had previously acquired the property in 2021 from the Ziff publishing family for $94 million.[24]
Clark is an enthusiasticyachtsman but cannot sail in rough ocean races such as theSydney-Hobart due to an arthritic condition in his ankles[25] and prefers one-day regattas on the smoother waters of the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and off Newport, Rhode Island. In 2012, however, he commented that "after 28 years of owning boats, I'm over it."[26][27]
He is the past owner of two important sailing yachts:
He remains the current owner of two other large sailing yachts:
Clark is a pilot who enjoys flying helicopters, gliders (built in Germany) and acrobatic aircraft (such as the Extra EA-300).[37]
Clark has contributed toStanford University, where he was an associate electrical engineering professor.[38] In 1999, he pledged $150 million toward construction of theJames H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and related programs for interdisciplinary biomedical research.[39] At the time, it was the largest-ever contribution to Stanford, other than the university's founding grant.[40] Construction started in 2001 and was completed in the summer of 2003, as part of Stanford's Bio-X program.[41] In September 2001, Clark rescinded $60 million of his initial pledge, citing anger over President Bush's restrictions on stem cell research.[42] In aNew York Times opinion piece, Clark said federal funding is essential for research in the United States, and he was not interested in funding research that could be suppressed for political reasons.[43] President Barack Obama lifted the restrictions in question in 2009.[44] In 2013, Clark pledged an additional $60 million to Stanford for interdisciplinary research in the life sciences, technology, and engineering.[45] His commitment was finally completely fulfilled in 2020.[46] Clark has donated an additional $10 million to fund fellowships at the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics.[47]
In 2004, Clark andDavid Filo ofYahoo! each donated $30 million to Tulane University's School of Engineering for merit-based scholarships to provide education to deserving students regardless of financial situation in the discipline of engineering.[48]
Clark is a board member for the national council of theWorld Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and contributes towards the organization.[49] ThePerlman Music Program has recognized Clark for his continued philanthropic efforts towards their organization and their endowment fund.[50]
SGI servers and workstations dominated the movie industry because they were good at two things: crunching numbers (for rendering animation), and displaying high-resolution graphics images quickly on the screen.
The building's other major donor, previously anonymous, was The Atlantic Philanthropies, which contributed $60 million.
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