Brendan Trexler Iribe (/ˈiːriːb/; born August 12, 1979) is an American game programmer, entrepreneur and co-founder of Oculus VR, Inc. and Scaleform. He is the managing partner at BIG Ventures, an early-stage venture fund.
Brendan Iribe | |
|---|---|
 Iribe holding an Oculus Rift in 2015 | |
| Born | August 12, 1979 Maryland, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Maryland, College Park (dropped out) |
| Occupation | Investor |
| Known for | CEO of Oculus VR (former) |
| Website | brendaniribe |
Early life and education
editIribe was born and grew up in Maryland. He graduated from Atholton High School in Howard County, Maryland and then attended the University of Maryland, College Park,[1] majoring in Computer Science which is part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences in College Park for two semesters before dropping out to work as a freelance programmer.[2][3][4]
Career
editHe started his career as a game programmer and worked on the user interface of Civilization IV.[1] He was cofounder/CEO of Scaleform, a user interface technology provider for PC games.[1][5] After Scaleform was sold to Autodesk, he worked as product team lead at Gaikai.[6] In August 2012, he departed Gaikai and became the new CEO of Oculus VR after their Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift VR Headset raised $2.4 million.[7] In December 2016, he stepped down from the role of CEO and decided to lead its newly created PC VR group.[8] In October 2018, Brendan announced in a Facebook post he would be departing Oculus and its parent company Facebook, with no mention of future plans.[9] In December 2018, he invested in Sketchfab, an online platform for 3D and VR content.[10]
Philanthropy
editIn 2014 Iribe announced a $31 million dollar donation to his alma mater, University of Maryland, College Park.[11] $30 million was for the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering, a new building which includes labs for virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics, and artificial intelligence.[12] The remaining $1 million was donated to establish a scholarship fund. Iribe's mother, Elizabeth Iribe, also gave $3 million to set up two endowed chairs in the school's computer science department - the Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair and the Paul Chrisman Iribe Chair (named after her brother).[13]
Racing record
editComplete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results
editSince departing Oculus in 2018, Iribe has focused his time on racing exotic cars manufactured by companies like McLaren and Ferrari.[14][15]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Class | Make | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Pos. | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Inception Racing with Optimum Motorsport | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | McLaren M840T 4.0L Turbo V8 | DAY | SEB | MDO | DET | WGL | WGL | LIM |
ELK | LGA | LBH | VIR | PET 12 |
63rd | 209 |
| 2022 | Inception Racing | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 | McLaren M840T 4.0L Turbo V8 | DAY 5 |
SEB 5 |
LBH 9 |
LGA 13 |
MDO 11 |
DET | WGL 2 |
MOS |
LIM |
ELK |
VIR |
PET 2 |
12th | 1644 |
| 2023 | Inception Racing | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 Evo | McLaren M840T 4.0 L Turbo V8 | DAY 3 |
SEB 4 |
LBH 6 |
MON 5 |
WGL 15 |
MOS 2 |
LIM 13 |
ELK 2 |
VIR 7 |
IMS 16 |
PET 19 |
6th | 2853 | |
| 2024 | Inception Racing | GTD | McLaren 720S GT3 Evo | McLaren M840T 4.0 L Turbo V8 | DAY 13 |
SEB 7 |
LBH 17 |
LGA | WGL | MOS | ELK | VIR | IMS | PET | 10th* | 626* | ||
| Source:[16] | ||||||||||||||||||
Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results
edit| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 |  Inception Racing
|
Ben Barnicoat Ollie Millroy
|
Ferrari 488 GTE Evo | GTE Am |
327 | 41st | 12th |
| 2022 |  Team Project 1
|
Ben Barnicoat Ollie Millroy
|
Porsche 911 RSR-19 | GTE Am |
241 | DNF | DNF |
| 2024 | Inception Racing
|
Ollie Millroy Frederik Schandorff
|
McLaren 720S GT3 Evo | LMGT3 | 275 | 40th | 13th |
| Source:[16] | |||||||
References
edit- ^ a b c Anderson, Nick (September 11, 2014). "College dropout donates $31 million to University of Maryland after technology company sells for $2 billion". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Constine, Josh (September 11, 2014). "Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe Donates $31M To Build VR Lab At His Alma Mater University Of Maryland". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Bowie, Liz (September 11, 2014). "Howard County native gives $31 million to UM for computer science center". Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Kessler, Sarah (September 22, 2014). "Why Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe Just Gave $31 Million To A New Computer Science Center". Fast Company. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Beilison, Jerry (May 28, 2014). "Palmer Luckey and the Virtual Reality Resurrection". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Michaels, Andrew (November 28, 2017). "Students at Howard County's Application and Research Lab test new virtual reality gear". Howard County Times. Archived from the original on June 21, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ "Gaikai executive jumps ship for Oculus Rift". August 15, 2012.
- ^ Cohen, David (December 13, 2016). "Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe Steps Down; Will Lead PC VR Group". AdWeek. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ "So much has happened since the day we founded Oculus in July 2012". Facebook. October 22, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
- ^ denoyel, alban (December 17, 2018). "Happy to share @brendaniribe (co-founder and former CEO of @oculus) recently joined the @Sketchfab journey as an investor. Great to have you on board, Brendan!". @albn. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ "College Receives $38M for New Computer Science Building, Scholarships, Endowed Professorships". College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. September 12, 2014. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
- ^ "Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe Donates $31M To Build VR Lab At His Alma Mater University Of Maryland". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
- ^ "UMD Receives $2.1M from the State of Maryland to Create Two Endowed Chairs". College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. September 10, 2015. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
- ^ "Driver: Brendan Iribe | Driver Database".
- ^ https://www.imsa.com/news/2023/08/15/a-breakthrough-win-for-mclaren-seems-closer-than-ever-with-inception-racing/ [bare URL]
- ^ a b "Brendan Iribe Results". motorsportstats.com. Retrieved January 24, 2024.