James H. Clark cofounded Silicon Graphics and Netscape, two very successful computer businesses; each has evolved into multi-billion dollar giants. Generous and thoughtful, Dr. Clark donated the largest grant to Stanford University, for biomedical research, and funded WebMD.com.
No one person is successful in isolation. James Clark surrounded himself with exceptional talent. Working with colleagues and students from Stanford, Clark founded Silicon Graphics in 1982 to build advanced computers for rendering 3-dimensional graphics. They produce workstations, processors, and software for flight simulation, aerospace, automotive design, scientific modeling, gaming, cinematic effects, and Internet graphics.
What does a billionaire do for fun? Start over again. So in 1994, having left SGI, James Clark cofounded a company with Marc Andreessen that adapted the only Web browser software, then NCSA Mosaic, into something commercially useful, and called it Netscape.
By following the insanely untested plan of giving away their software, Netscape became the defacto standard and the pivotal influence in the explosive acceptance of the Web into the Internet users culture. The Netscape initial public offering (IPO) became the most successful in Wall Street’s history.
If two are great, then the third startup company must be off the chart. Starting over again, Clark funded another Internet enterprise, Healtheon Corp, a Web mechanism for resourcing medical information online.
Born in Plainview, TX (1944), Jim Clark is a self-described hoodlum during his early years. He joined the Navy at age 17. After enlistment, Clark completed his high school equivalency test and a masters degree in Physics (1971) at the University of New Orleans. Challenged for higher learning, Clark switched to a doctoral program in computer science, thinking it was a better field to find a job. In 1974, James Clark earned his Ph.D. from the University of Utah.
Clark’s first teaching job at the University of Santa Cruz was disappointing. For a time he consulted for Boeing, but regarded himself there, “Like a cog in a wheel.” He vowed to never again work for an established organization. An entrepreneur is born.
A business concept consumed him; so he returned to academia mainly to create a new technology in the lab. Teaching at Stanford University was intended to be a temporary position.
Clark’s most significant innovation over the next two years was his geometric engine, a processor for generating 3-dimensional graphics. It transfers the former use of software capability to hardware so that the computer nearly instantaneously performs functions that would otherwise require time-consuming lines of code.
Clark’s small team that joined him at Silicon Graphics (1982), set out to produce more efficient 3D computers than presently existed. The cornerstone of the business plan was to also bring a degree of this sophistication cheaply to the micro computer platforms too.
For the first time, SGI had the virtual computer for engineers, designers and artists to pickup, rotate, and walk through, in pretend space, complex 3D objects on the screen and in real time.
Clark hired Ed McCracken as CEO, and together they brought the company into a world market (1987) selling workstations to institutions such as the US military, NASA, British Aerospace and automobile manufacturers.
Hollywood film makers became SGI’s best clients. For them, Silicon Graphics creating realistic cinematic special effects at a considerable savings of time, money, and risk to actors and crew. The results have been eye-popping block-busters, such as Terminator II, Batman Forever, Jurassic Park, and Toy Story.
Growth of SGI (1986-96) had been a phenomenal 40%, about $2,000M per year. The company employed 7,000. But Jim Clark decided to leave because management refused to pursue a low cost interactive television platform in the PC market.
Clark approach Marc Andreessen, the young programmer who created the first Web browser, NCSA Mosaic. People thought the Internet was then just a passing fad (February 1994). Andreessen quickly convinced Clark that the Internet, with 25 million new users, had greater short-term potential than interactive television.
Six million dollars of Clark’s own money poured into their project. The plan was to give away the browser software to everyone, developing a huge market, and their own standard for the Internet. Profits would come from selling the big computers and programs that run on them, that act as hubs, on the Internet and within offices.
By adopting the policy of open and free use, Netscape led the technological revolution that transformed the Internet from exclusive access by scientists and researchers to the most popular media of all times.
Moving on, James Clark’s has grappled onto the edge of another arena. He hires the very best technical talent available; always has. His Healtheon company cohesively unifies regional, national and global health care systems. Through databases and email, users can select care providers and query their own health records securely.
Philanthropic as much as talented, James Clark has gifted $150M to Stanford University for biomedical engineering and sciences. He regarded the gift as token appreciation to the school. “If you’re allowed to be in an academic setting and create the springboard of a business effectively without undue impediments, then you have an obligation to respond in kind,” he said.
Clark is keen on winning the America’s Cup for the US in yachting, a sport he prefers to call just a “sailing race.” He speaks openly against the US stand on encryption technology export restrictions. And at college campuses, Clark is viewed, jokingly, as the “anti-Gates.”
Characteristically understated he says accurately, “I’m not a big
proponent of the great man theory. Some people come along and they make things
happen a little faster than they otherwise might happen.” In the world of
information technology, faster is better.