YouTube engineering chief Venkat Panchapakesan loses battle with cancer

New Delhi, May 15: 49-year-old YouTube Engineering Chief Venkat Panchapakesan on Monday evening, May 11, passed away following a months-long battle with cancer in Silicon Valley.

Venkat, known as Venky, by his family and friends, bade farewell to the world, after contributing immensely in the field of Information Technology.

Venkat, who hailed from Coimbatore, accomplished his BE in Electronics from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology (CIT). He left for the US in 1990s, to pursue his MS in Computer Engineering from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.

In 2009, Venkat resigned from Yahoo! after a stint of ten years. [Another top Yahoo! techie, Venkat quits]

In 2010, he joined Google and in June same year, he was named engineering head for YouTube, reporting directly to the company's CEO Susan Wojcicky.

He was said to be a code wizard and several patents are credited to his name.

In a statement, Wojcicki said, "Venkat was a deeply admired leader of our engineering team and we are extremely saddened by his passing. He was loved by the people who worked with him and will be missed by everyone who knew him. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time."

Venkat is survived by his wife Sandy and two children.

OneIndia News