Glen de Vries
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Glen de Vries | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | June 29, 1972 New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 11, 2021 (aged 49) |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founder of Medidata Solutions Space tourist (Blue Origin NS-18 suborbital flight) |
Glen de Vries (June 29, 1972 – November 11, 2021) was an American entrepreneur in the field of medical science and pharmacology. He was the co-founder and co-CEO of Medidata Solutions. In October 2021, de Vries flew into space on Blue Origin NS-18 in a suborbital flight.
De Vries grew up in New York and showed a passion for computers and science at a young age. In middle school, he founded a rocket club in the science lab.[1] He attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in Manhattan and the Bronx, NY. His mother encouraged him to learn ballroom dancing in high school, and he danced competitively with her.[2] De Vries attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated in 1994. He taught himself to speak Japanese.[3]
De Vries received his undergraduate degree in molecular biology and genetics from Carnegie Mellon University, worked as a research scientist at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and studied computer science at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematics.
Career
In 1994, Glen de Vries and Ed Ikeguchi created OceanTek, a startup that developed Web applications for conducting clinical trials. In 1999, along with Tarek Sherif, de Vries and Ed Ikeguchi founded Medidata Solutions to provide online systems for designing and running clinical trials.[4][5] Medidata made its IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Market on June 25, 2009.[6]
In 2013, he endowed the first student fellowship of NYU Center for Data Science, the Glen de Vries Permanent Fellowship Fund.[7]
De Vries sold Medidata to Dassault Systèmes in 2019 for $5.8 billion.[8][9]
Blue Origin flight
On October 13, 2021, de Vries accompanied actor William Shatner and two tourists on a New Shepard launch vehicle as part of the Blue Origin NS-18 suborbital flight into outer space.[10][11]
