Two major industry players, Akamai Technologies and Avid Technologies, have lost employees aboard the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center last month. Akamai's co-founder, CTO, and board member Daniel M. Lewin, was on board American Airlines Flight 11 and Avid Technology's Director of New Market Development, Doug Gowell, was on United Airlines Flight 175. Lewin was 31 years old and has left behind his wife and two sons. He co-founded Akamai in September 1998. He was recently named one of the 25 most influential CTOs by InfoWorld.com, and ranked seventh in the Power 100 list of the Enterprise Systems Journal. Lewin was a brilliant scholar and researcher who received several awards, including the 1998 Morris Joseph Lewin Award for Best Masterworks Thesis Presentation at MIT. His master's thesis included some of the fundamental algorithms that make up the core of Akamai's services. He was a Ph.D. candidate in the Algorithms group at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.
George H. Conrades, chairman and chief executive officer of Akamai said, "Danny was a wonderful human being. He will be deeply missed by his many friends at Akamai. Our thoughts and prayers are with Danny's family, friends, and colleagues during this time of national tragedy and personal loss."
Gowell was 52 and is survived by his wife and two children. He was born in Fitchburg, MA and graduated from Lowell Institute of Technology. He had been with Avid for almost three years. Previous to that, he had worked for other technology companies, including Augment Systems, Polaroid Corporation, and IMAGITEX Inc.
David Krall, president and chief executive officer of Avid said, "Words simply cannot describe the grief we feel for Doug's family and all those who were close to him as a professional colleague and a personal friend. Many of us think of Avid as a second family, and the thought of losing one of our own is extremely difficult. Our thoughts and prayers are with Doug's family and all who knew him well, as well as anyone who may have been affected by this tragedy."
