# Wes McKinney - Personal Website and Blog

> Personal website and technical blog of Wes McKinney, creator of pandas and co-creator of Apache Arrow

## About

Wes McKinney is an entrepreneur and open source software developer focusing on analytical computing. He is currently a Principal Architect at Posit PBC. He co-founded Voltron Data and now serves on its advisory board.

## Key Projects

### pandas
- Python data analytics toolkit
- Created in 2008, turned over to open source community in 2013
- One of the foundational tools in the Python data science ecosystem
- https://pandas.pydata.org

### Apache Arrow
- Co-creator and PMC member
- Cross-language development platform for in-memory columnar data
- Focuses on C++ and Python implementations
- Helped design core Arrow format and start Flight, Nanoarrow, and ADBC subprojects
- https://arrow.apache.org

### Ibis
- Python DSL toolkit bringing together data frames and SQL
- Created in 2015 at Cloudera
- https://ibis-project.org

### Apache Parquet
- PMC member
- Principal author of C++ implementation and Python bindings
- https://parquet.apache.org

### Python for Data Analysis
- Book authored for O'Reilly Media
- Three editions: 2012, 2017, 2022
- Translations in many languages
- https://wesmckinney.com/book

## Site Structure

### Home Page (/)
- Professional bio and background
- Links to major projects
- Current position and career history

### Blog (/archives.html)
- Technical blog posts about:
  - Apache Arrow development and columnar data formats
  - pandas internals and performance
  - Python data science ecosystem
  - Parquet and data storage formats
  - Open source project updates
  - Career reflections and industry commentary

### Talks (/presentations.html)
- Comprehensive archive of conference talks and podcasts (2010-present)
- Keynotes at major conferences (SciPy, PyCon, JupyterCon, PyData)
- Topics: Arrow, pandas, Python data ecosystem, analytics performance
- Includes links to slides and videos where available

### Book (/book)
- Online version of "Python for Data Analysis, 3rd Edition"
- Comprehensive guide to data analysis with pandas and Python
- Note: Built separately from main blog

## Content Topics

The blog covers:
- **Apache Arrow**: Architecture, performance, streaming, interoperability
- **pandas**: Design decisions, internals, performance optimization
- **Data formats**: Parquet, Feather, columnar storage
- **Python ecosystem**: Tools, workflows, future directions
- **Open source**: Community building, project governance, sustainability
- **Career/Industry**: Personal reflections, company updates, data science trends
- **Performance**: Benchmarks, optimization techniques, multithreading

## Professional Background

- Current: Principal Architect at Posit PBC (2023-present)
- Co-founded Voltron Data (advisory board)
- Previously: Ursa Computing, Ursa Labs, Two Sigma, Cloudera, DataPad, AQR Capital Management
- Education: S.B. in Mathematics from MIT (2007)
- Member of The Apache Software Foundation

## Contact

- Email: info@wesmckinney.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/wesm
- Twitter: @wesmckinn
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/wesmckinn

## Technical Details

- Built with: Quarto 1.8.25
- Hosting: GitHub Pages
- Analytics: Google Analytics
- Monetization: EthicalAds (text ads on blog posts)