Mr. William Harvey Inmon

An American computer scientist, recognized by many as the father of the data warehouse, wrote the first book, held the first conference (with Arnie Barnett), wrote the first column in a magazine and was the first to offer classes in data warehousing. He created the accepted definition of a data warehouse. Inmon's approach is often characterized as a top-down approach. He created the Corporate Information Factory Website to educate professionals and decision makers about data warehousing and the Corporate Information Factory which describes the larger information architecture into which warehousing fits. He was the creator of the Government Information Factory, as well as Data Warehousing 2.0, and is a prolific author on the building, usage, and maintenance of the data warehouse and the Corporate Information Factory, including over 1,000 articles in journals and newsletters. He also created the first fold out wall chart and conducted the first classes on data warehousing. Recent advances include the creation of DW 2.0 and developed the technology for including unstructured textual data into the data warehouse - the world?s first "textual ETL". In 2007 he was named by Computerworld as one of the ten people that most influenced the first 40 years of the computer industry.