Gary Burrell is an American businessman, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Garmin

Garmin

Garmin Ltd. , incorporated in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, is the parent company of a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao , that develops consumer, aviation, and marine technologies for the Global Positioning System...

, makers of popular Global Positioning System devices.

Biography

He earned a degree in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University

Wichita State University

Wichita State University is a NCAA Division I public university in Wichita, Kansas with selective admissions. WSU is one of six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The current president is Dr. Donald Beggs....

 and a masters degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...

.

Along with partner Min Kao

Min Kao

Min H. Kao is the co-founder of Garmin Corporation with Gary Burrell. As of January 2010, his personal wealth was estimated at $1.6 billion.-Biography:He was born in 1949 in a small town in Taiwan called Jhushan in Nantou....

, Burrell founded Garmin in 1989 to make navigation devices for aviation and boating using the Global Positioning System. Their original office was two folding chairs and a card table. U.S. Army servicemen loved GPS during the first Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

, even though Garmin never had a military contract. Later on, the technology was expanded for the U.S. market, providing directions across all United States roads and highways.

In 2007, Burrell ranked #114 on the Forbes 400 list of America's richest people.