In the 1960s, Jack and Laura Dangermond envisioned technology that could help decision-makers balance human development with environmental stewardship. Laura was a social scientist interested in rational thinking and analysis; Jack was a landscape architect who learned entrepreneurship and customer care from his family's business.

While Jack attended Harvard, they both worked in the university's Lab for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, where early mapmaking software was being developed. Inspired by the technology's potential, they conceptualized using computer-powered mapping and analysis for complex problem-solving. In 1969, they cofounded Esri, known then as Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), in their hometown of Redlands, California.

Esri initially focused on performing environmental studies for land-use planning projects. Laura ran company operations, and Jack quickly gained a reputation as a pioneer in digital mapping, helping develop some of the first tools for digitizing maps, computer mapmaking, and spatial analysis, as well as the first commercial geographic information system (GIS). Continuous innovation, investment in research and development, and a genuine customer-centric philosophy helped Esri evolve into the world leader in GIS software, now an essential tool across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

Esri's vision remains the same today as it was for Laura and Jack in the beginning. Technology, science, and a geographic approach can be used by business and government leaders to make better decisions—building sustainable prosperity while safeguarding the planet on which we all depend.

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