Jim,
Thanks for letting us know.
I am very sorry to hear about Venky's passing.
--Tom
On 04/05/2018 02:36 PM, St Leger, Jim wrote:
Several of you have already heard the very sad news of the passing of
our dear friend and colleague Venky. He was “Mr. DPDK” to many, a nod
to his invention and creation of DPDK about ten years ago (before it
was called DPDK.) Of course his footprints across the industry and
literally across the globe are everywhere. If you know what ATCA is,
well, Venky had his hands and inventions deeply into the creation of
that PICMG spec and many of the first revision products. He touched on
and gave guidance to projects spanning Linux/netdev, DPDK, Intel
QuickAssist Technology, BSD stacks, OVS, OPNFV, FD.io,
all-things-virtualization (KVM, Xen, VMware, Hyper-V, etc.), ETSI,
IETF, containers, and so many other arenas that my brain can’t
remember at this dark moment.
If you knew him and engaged him, especially on deep technical
discussions, you knew you were talking to someone with the rare
combination of skills that went incredibly deep both on the hardware,
silicon side of platforms but also on the software, networking side of
the platforms. Rarely did I find a topic that Venky wasn’t well
versed on. And by “topic” I mean everything from football to
photography to history to politics and many other subjects well beyond
the technical realm our day jobs find us in. Conversations with Venky
were a treat. Traveling with him was an adventure. Debating with him
was a lesson. I will so miss all of him.
Below are some details on a memorial service this Sunday in Oregon and
also a GoFundMe page. If you’re in Oregon or close by please join the
service. Venky left behind a wife, Priya, and two young girls, Adhiti
and Namrata. While I’m sure they are overwhelmed with sadness and
grief at the moment they can use our support. Please consider
supporting the GoFundMe memorial fund for his family.
Lastly, my network extends through this distribution list. But
Venky’s network was one hundred times broader. Please share this sad
news through your own networks.
Thanks,
Jim
*From:* A message from Sandra Rivera
*Sent:* Thursday, April 5, 2018 10:58 AM
*Subject:* Follow-up: A loss for our NPG organization
All,
We have an update on the memorial service plans in celebration of
Venky Venkatesan’s life.
The service will be held on Sunday, April 8^th at our Jones Farm
Conference Center (JFCC) in Hillsboro, OR from 2-4PM, and is open to
all who would like to join.
Venky’s family will plan to attend, as well as friends and others who
have worked closely with him over the years.Please note that this is
not an Intel-sponsored event and therefore any travel or expenses
related to attending need to be managed personally.
Many of you have asked about donations, and we have helped setup a
GoFundMe account for his family which will be used to fund
scholarships for his children.
https://www.gofundme.com/venky-venkatesan-memorial-fund
If you have any questions about the service, please contact *Udayan
Mukherjee*.
Thank you all very much for your support during this difficult time.
Sandra
**
*From:* A message from Sandra Rivera
*Sent:* Tuesday, April 3, 2018 9:34 PM
*Subject:* A loss for our NPG organization
To All,
Today is a very sad day for our NPG team and Intel. Our dear friend
and colleague, Venky Venkatesan, passed away early morning today after
a tough battle with cancer.
Aside from his deep contributions to the organization, Venky provided
technical mentorship to many employees and greatly impacted our
technical leadership pipeline.
On a personal level, Venky was very dedicated to his family and also
cared deeply about mentoring the next generation of engineers and
scientists through efforts like coaching robotics teams and providing
guidance to many interns and Intel employees. His passion, dedication
and commitment to this organization, Intel, and the external community
will be greatly missed.
We will let you know as soon as more information is available for
Venky’s memorial/celebration service.
Sandra
--
*Thomas F Herbert*
NFV and Fast Data Planes
Networking Group Office of the CTO
*Red Hat*
