James H. Clark

Dr. James H. Clark (born 1944) first became famous for technological advancement in computer graphics but later became known as one of the most famous entrepreneurs in economic history. He dropped out of high school, spent four years in the Navy, then eventually ended up with a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree (both in Physics) from the University of New Orleans in Louisiana. He earned a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah. Jim Clark was first known for his work with geometry pipelines, specialized software or hardware that accelerates the display of three dimensional images. The zenith of these advancements was the Geometry Engine, an early technology for rendering highly graphical computer images he developed in 1979.

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1944 - Computer graphics - Entrepreneur - Navy - Bachelor's degree - Master's degree - Physics - University of New Orleans - Louisiana - PhD - Computer Science - University of Utah - Geometry pipelines - Geometry Engine - 1979

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In 1982, Jim Clark and Abbey Silverstone along with several Stanford graduate students formed Silicon Graphics, Inc. The earliest Silicon Graphics graphical workstations were mainly terminals, but soon newer models were stand-alone graphical UNIX workstations with very fast graphics rendering hardware. The variety of UNIX developed by Silicon Graphics is known as IRIX.

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1982 - Stanford - Silicon Graphics, Inc. - Workstation - UNIX - IRIX

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During the mid-1980s, Silicon Graphics bought chipmaker MIPS, Inc. and used the MIPS CPU as the foundation of their newest workstations, replacing the Motorola 68000. Soon, Silicon Graphics became the world leader in the production of Hollywood movie special effects and 3-D imaging. Silicon Graphics did not rely on high sales as they could charge more for their special high-end hardware and special graphics software.

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1980s - MIPS - CPU - Motorola 68000 - Hollywood

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However, by the early 1990s, Jim Clark had a falling out with Silicon Graphics management and got the itch to start a completely new and different enterprise. In 1992, Clark and Marc Andreessen, the creator of the World Wide Web browser Mosaic, founded Netscape. The founding of Netscape was a pivotal point that helped launch the Internet IPO boom on Wall Street during the mid to late 1990s, and Clark reaped the financial benefits of the Internet boom. Just as the Internet boom was about to completely bust, Clark got the urge to move on again.

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1990s - 1992 - Marc Andreessen - World Wide Web - Mosaic - Netscape - Internet - IPO - Wall Street

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In 1998, Jim Clark came up with the idea of streamlining the insurance hassles and paperwork associated with the healthcare industry. He came up with the idea of a company that would help make access to more efficient healthcare easier. Although his original idea was a bit too ambitious, it did lead some inroads in administrative streamlining of medical records technology, but an Atlanta, Georgia startup company, WebMD, was already making inroads toward the same goal. Knowing that WebMD had financial backing from Microsoft, Clark decided to merge his newest startup, Healtheon, with the original WebMD to form the current WebMD Corporation. WebMD also provides a vast resource of online, reliable health information on the Internet.

Related Topics:
1998 - Atlanta, Georgia - WebMD - Microsoft - Internet

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In 1999, Clark launched myCFO - a company to help wealthy individuals manage their fortunes. This was sold to Harris Bank in late 2002 for a third of the intital investment.

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Jim Clark was the main subject of the 1999 bestseller The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by US author Michael Lewis. ISBN 0340766999

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