Tech leader to speak at Global Entrepreneurship Week event

LAWRENCE — As part of a worldwide celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, KU alumnus and technology innovator Brian McClendon will speak at the University of Kansas School of Business at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 21.

The conversation, which will be held in the Dicus Family Auditorium, 1111 Capitol Federal Hall, is free and open to the public, but registration is required to attend.

McClendon graduated from KU with a degree in electrical engineering and spent eight years with Silicon Graphics developing high-end workstation 3D graphics hardware. He then joined Keyhole, a software development company specializing in geospatial data visualization applications, as vice president of engineering. At Keyhole, he developed what later became Google Earth.

In 2004, Google purchased the company and McClendon led the "Geo" efforts at Google, including Google Maps, Google Earth, Streetview and Waze. 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 adviser. He joined the School of Engineering faculty as a research professor in 2017.

Each November, the KU School of Business and its Center for Entrepreneurship participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week activities, which celebrate innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. The week serves as an opportunity to cultivate innovative thinking across the KU community.