Regis McKenna (born 1939?[citation needed]) was an American marketer in Silicon Valley and introduced some techniques today commonplace among advertisers. He and his firm helped market 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).[1]
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.[2] He has been described as the man who put Silicon Valley on the map.[3] He has been called "Silicon Valley's preeminent public relations man", a "guru", a "czar", a "philosopher king",[4] a "legendary marketer", Apple's "marketing guru",[5] "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".[6] Newsweek called him "the Silicon Valley Svengali"[7] and Business Week has called him "one of high-tech's ace trendspotters" and a "marketing wizard in Silicon Valley".
A 1985 Los Angeles Times remarked, "McKenna is best known for taking the story of Apple Computer's founding in a Los Altos garage by two young entrepreneurs and weaving it into part of our national folklore."[4]