How do you follow up one of the biggest accomplishments ever? It’s a question that has hounded creatives for ages. Sometimes success can be sustained over the long haul, as in the case of Emmit J. McHenry — inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, veteran.
Known as “the creator of .com,” McHenry is a 1962 graduate of Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School. He earned a degree in communications from the University of Denver in 1966; worked as a systems engineer at IBM; was drafted and joined the Marines, then went to Officer Candidate School. Following the Marine Corps, he held various corporate management positions, including as regional vice president with Allstate.
But it was in his role as founder of Network Solutions that McHenry helped shape the modern world. His company secured the rights to create the system that granted the first domain names of the fledgling internet in 1993, initially setting up the suffixes of .com, .net, .edu and .gov; managing the world’s first domain registry; and laying the groundwork for everything that came after.
“We were the first people who made a product (OpenLink) that allowed different manufacturers’ equipment to communicate,” explains McHenry, who calls the development “the secret sauce to the internet.” He and his partners sold Network Solutions at a significant profit a few years later.
Since then, he has helmed multiple companies on four continents and is now chairman and CEO of Cycurion, which provides technology-enabled cybersecurity services to governments and commercial clients. McHenry also serves as chairman of PRUVE Systems, which focuses on personal identity management.
“I’m fully aware of other people who made billions, and I made a few bucks, but I’m still creating, so I’m not adversely affected,” says McHenry, who was inducted into the BTW Distinguished Hall of Fame in 1998.
Though he has traveled and done business all over the world, McHenry still feels a connection to the area he once called home.
“Tulsa and Booker T. Washington had a real impact on what came after,” he says.
