Jim McKelvey


Jim McKelvey is an American technology entrepreneur, businessperson and philanthropist who is the co-founder of Square, a financial payments company. McKelvey was appointed as an Independent Director of the St. Louis Federal Reserve in January 2017.

Early life

James Morgan McKelvey Jr. was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri and is a alumnus of Ladue Horton Watkins High School. He wrote and published a Handbook on UCSD Pascal and Apple Pascal in 1986. After graduation from Washington University in St. Louis, McKelvey worked as a contractor for IBM in Los Angeles and in St. Louis. At the same time, he had jobs as a glassblowing instructor and founded Disconcepts, a CD cabinet manufacturing company.

Career

Third Degree Glass Factory

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 education center and studio.

Square, Inc.

In 2009, McKelvey co-founded Square with Jack Dorsey. Professor Robert Morley designed the hardware used by Square in 2009, while McKelvey and Jack Dorsey later created a separate entity leaving Morley out of this entity's ownership. McKelvey then served as Square's chairman until 2010. Today, McKelvey sits on the Board of Directors at Square.

Cultivation Capital

In 2012, McKelvey teamed with other St. Louis-based serial entrepreneurs to help found Cultivation Capital. The venture capital firm manages multiple early-stage venture capital funds in software, life sciences, and agtech. Cultivation Capital was noted by Crunchbase as an active venture capital investor.

The Federal Reserve

In 2017, McKelvey was appointed as an Independent Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Non-profit Work

LaunchCode

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. 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. In 2014, LaunchCode was named "The Best Thing to Happen to St. Louis" by the St. Louis Riverfront Times. In February 2019, LaunchCode received a $300,000 grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support education programming.

Philanthropy

In 2016, McKelvey donated $15M to the Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science to build a new computer science and engineering building named after his father. In 2019, Washington University's engineering school was renamed the McKelvey School of Engineering.

Works

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