Regis McKenna

Regis McKenna is a marketer who introduced many of the ideas that are now part of the mainstream in technology marketing. He and his firm were instrumental in the launch of some of the most innovative products of the computer age, including the first microprocessor (Intel Corporation), Apple's first personal computer (Apple Computer), the first recombinant DNA genetically engineered product (Genentech, Inc.), and the first retail computer store (The Byte Shop).

Among the entrepreneurial start-ups with which he worked during their formative years are America Online, Apple, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Intel, Linear Technology, Lotus, Microsoft, National Semiconductor, Silicon Graphics, and 3COM. He has been described as the man who put Silicon Valley on the map. He has been called “Silicon Valley's preeminent public relations man,” a “guru,” a “czar,” a “philosopher king,” a “legendary marketer,” Apple's “marketing guru,” “the fellow that put Intel and Apple on the map,” and “ a pioneer in the semiconductor business in terms of the marketing side of things.” Newsweek called him “the Silicon Valley Svengali” and Business Week has called him “one of high-tech's ace trendspotters” and a “marketing wizard in Silicon Valley.”

According to a 1985 article in the Los Angeles Times, McKenna is “best known for taking the story of Apple Computer's founding in a Los Altos garage by a couple of young entrepreneurs and weaving the tale into part of our national folklore.” “McKenna's power comes from the fact that good public relations are crucial for hundreds of small technology-oriented start-up companies,” wrote the Times. Robert Henkel, editor in chief of Electronics magazine and former technology editor of Business Week, told the Times that McKenna was “the best p.r. man around in the high-technology business.”

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