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American sculptor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Morgan McKelvey Jr. (born 1965 or 1966[1]) is an American billionaire businessman who co-founded Block, Inc. McKelvey was appointed as an independent director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in January 2017.[2] As of July 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$2 billion.[3]
Jim McKelvey | |
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| Born | James Morgan McKelvey Jr. 1965 or 1966 (age 58–59) |
| Alma mater | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Occupation | Director of Block, Inc. |
James Morgan McKelvey Jr. was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and is an alumnus of Ladue Horton Watkins High School.[4] He wrote and published a handbook on UCSD Pascal and Apple Pascal in 1986.[5] After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, McKelvey worked as a contractor for IBM in Los Angeles and in St. Louis.[6] At the same time, he worked as a glassblowing instructor and founded Disconcepts, a CD-cabinet manufacturer.[6]
In 1989, Jim McKelvey and a team of software engineers from Washington University, established Mira in St. Louis. Their inaugural product, a commercial document imaging system, was partly developed by their summer intern Jack Dorsey,[7] who would later rise to prominence as the co-founder of Twitter.[7]
In 2000, after giving a glassblowing demonstration at WUSTL, McKelvey met Doug Auer. In 2002 they founded Third Degree Glass Factory in St. Louis, a glass art studio and gallery which also provides space for private events.[8][9] He talks about this extensively.
In 2009, McKelvey co-founded Square with Jack Dorsey.[10][11][1] Professor Robert Morley made valuable early contributions to the hardware used by Square in 2009.[12] In 2011, the iconic card reader design was inducted into the Museum of Modern Art.[13] McKelvey served as Square's chairman until 2010.[14] as of July 2023[update], McKelvey sits on the Board of Directors at Block, Inc.[15]
In June 2016, McKelvey founded Invisibly, a company seeking to allow consumers to profit from their online data.[16][17]
In 2017, McKelvey was appointed as an Independent Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.[18] In January 2022, McKelvey was named as Chair.[19]
Since 2019, McKelvey and business partner John Berglund as Starwood Group have been instrumental in building Downtown North, an Urban Insight District in St. Louis.
In September 2013, McKelvey co-founded LaunchCode, a non-profit organization that aims to grow new talent and create pathways to on-the-job training and employment.[20] LaunchCode partners with companies to set up paid apprenticeships in technology for talented people who lack the traditional credentials to land a quality, high-paying job.[21] In 2014, LaunchCode was named "The Best Thing to Happen to St. Louis" by the St. Louis Riverfront Times.[22] In February 2019, LaunchCode received a $300,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support education programming.[23]
In 2016, McKelvey donated $15 million to the Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science to build a new computer science and engineering building named after his father.[24] In 2019, Washington University's engineering school was renamed the McKelvey School of Engineering.[25][26]
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