Keynote Speaker, Brian McClendon

Brian McClendon grew up in Lawrence, Kansas (his childhood home, Meadowbrook Apartments in Lawrence, is the default center point of Google Earth). He graduated from Lawrence High School and from the University of Kansas with a degree in electrical engineering.

McClendon spent eight years with Silicon Graphics developing high-end workstation 3D graphics hardware. He was an active angel investor since 1997 and in 2001 he was one of the original investors and a board member in Keyhole, Inc. Keyhole was a software development company specializing in geospatial data visualization applications. He later joined the company full-time as a vice-president of engineering.

McClendon joined Google in 2004, when Google purchased Keyhole. Keyhole's main application suite, Earth Viewer, formed the basis of Google Earth. For 10 years, he led the "Geo" efforts at Google including Google Maps, Google Earth, Streetview, and Waze.

Even while living in California, he maintained close ties with his alma mater, the University of Kansas, serving on advisory boards for both the School of Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and serving as a Trustee for the KU Endowment.

He and his wife Beth McClendon established the McClendon Engineering Scholarship at the university in 2007, donated computer tablets for electrical engineering and computer science students, and provided a Google Liquid Galaxy interactive display at the University's Eaton Hall. In 2013, he served as Grand Marshal of the University's homecoming parade.

McClendon holds over 20 patents was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2015.
He left Google to join Uber in June 2015 to lead Uber's mapping, self-driving, and business-platform groups. In January 2017 he joined Kansas City venture capitalist firm Firebrand VC as an advisor. In March of 2017 he returned Lawrence to become a Research Professor at the University of Kansas.