Gideon I. Gartner (March 13, 1935 – December 12, 2020) was an American businessman, entrepreneur, educator and philanthropist. Often referred to as the father of the modern analyst industry, he is best known as the founder of Gartner, Inc. (formerly Gartner Group Inc.) a Stamford, Connecticut information technology (IT) research and advisory company. Early life and education Gideon Isaiah Gartner was born on March 13, 1935 in Tel Aviv, to Eastern European Jewish émigrés. His father Abraham was an engineer, while his mother Pnina (née Bedri) was a musician and teacher. In 1938 the family moved to the United States and settled in Brooklyn, where Abraham became a civil engineer for New York City. Gartner attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush and then Midwood High School, graduating in 1952. A gifted musician who excelled at both piano and the French horn, he was offered a musical scholarship to the University of Miami, but was discouraged from pursuing music as a career choice. Instead, Gartner chose to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He went on to earn his Master’s degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1960. Speaking about his courses at MIT, he is noted to have said that most classes bored him except computer science and programming courses. Career Early career Gartner began his career in operations research at System Development Corporation, a subcontractor to Philco Corporation. He worked in Paramus, New Jersey for the U.S. military’s Strategic Air Command control system and then in Alexandria, Virginia for the Defense Communications Agency. In 1961 Philco sold the first large-scale transistorized computer to Israel’s Ministry of Defense, and sent Gartner, with his background in Hebrew, to help program the computer and to market Philco to other Israel government agencies. While in Israel, Gartner was recruited by International Business Machines (IBM) to lead its Systems Engineering staff serving emerging European and Mideast markets. Gartner rose steadily at IBM, eventually moving to its White Plains, New York offices to become Manager of Market Information in the Data Processing Division, and a leading figure in the company’s department of commercial analysis. In 1969, Gartner left IBM to form Computer Decisions, his first independent entrepreneurial venture. The new firm struggled in the recession of 1969-70 and was sold to a time-share company which subsequently failed. Wall Street In 1970, despite having