Dan Drake

Dan Drake holds a profound technical background in early microcomputer programming and systems architecture, heavily forged during his time at Marinchip Systems. Working alongside John Walker on the Texas Instruments TMS9900 microprocessor, Drake gained hands-on experience navigating extreme hardware constraints, which proved absolutely essential when optimizing AutoCAD to run efficiently on the limited memory of early 1980s desktop computers.

Dan Drake is a seasoned software engineer and an early computer industry pioneer who played a foundational role in co-founding Autodesk. Drake initially partnered with John Walker at Marinchip Systems, where they gained extensive, hands-on experience building early microcomputer systems from the ground up. When Walker proposed the highly ambitious 'software games' syndicate that would eventually become Autodesk, Drake was one of the very first programmers to commit to the venture. His deep, highly specialized technical expertise was absolutely critical during Autodesk's chaotic early years, directly helping to stabilize the company's software architecture as AutoCAD rapidly scaled from a niche, experimental drafting tool into a globally recognized, indispensable industry standard.