Stuart McClure's second consecutive OC 500 recognition came in 2019, the year after Cylance's $1.4 billion acquisition by BlackBerry. The back-to-back inclusions reflect the sustained influence of a leader who had built Orange County's most consequential technology company and was now navigating the post-acquisition period while beginning to develop his next ventures.
2019 was a year of transition. The Cylance brand continued to operate as a BlackBerry division, and Stuart's relationship with the company he had founded was evolving from founder-CEO to something different as the integration process proceeded. Meanwhile, the ideas and relationships that would eventually become NumberOne AI, Qwiet AI, and Wethos AI were taking shape.
The OC 500's recognition of Stuart in this transition year acknowledges something that can get lost in the startup narrative: that the impact of building a significant company persists beyond the transaction that transfers ownership. The people Stuart hired and developed, the security paradigm he helped shift, the Orange County technology ecosystem he contributed to building — these effects continued regardless of the corporate structure that housed Cylance's technology.
Consistent inclusion in the OC 500 across multiple years reflects the OCBJ's assessment of ongoing influence rather than historic achievement — a recognition that Stuart's presence in the Orange County business community continued to matter independently of the specific company he happened to be building at any given moment.