Published May 15, 2015 This content is archived.
Venkat Panchapakesan (MS ’90), Head of Engineering at You Tube and a member of the SEAS Dean's Advisory Council, passed away on May 11, 2015, only days before his 49th birthday.
Panchapakesan had recently joined the School’s Dean’s Advisory Council, where he advocated for strengthening relationships with UB’s alumni population and worked to form bonds between the university and the industry at large. He was also taking a leadership role in building an Alumni Network in the greater Bay area of Northern California, where he lived and worked.
Panchapakesan was also a strong advocate of international alumni relations. He had said to UB President Satish Tripathi and SEAS Assistant Dean Tim Siderakis that he was interested in helping UB and was thoroughly enjoying reconnecting with the school.
“We have enjoyed our discussions with Venkat over the past few years. He was a remarkable and accomplished alumnus,” said Siderakis. “His contribution to the field of engineering has been amazing and we are proud that he was part of the UB family. I’m saddened that we did not have more time with him.”
Eight years after earning his UB degree, Panchapakesan joined Yahoo!, then a small company with under 200 employees. During his 12 years there, the company grew to 14,000 employees and its revenue ballooned from $208 million to $7.8 billion.
A holder of many Internet-related patents, Panchapakesan also served as vice president of engineering at Google, where he oversaw the technology behind applications like Gmail, Drive and Calendar. In June 2014, he was named head of engineering at YouTube, a Google company, where he oversaw the technology that powered the site for its 1 billion users.
This past March, Panchapakesan received the Clifford C. Furnas Memorial Award from the UB Alumni Association. The award is presented to an alumnus from the natural or applied sciences who has distinguished themselves in the field.
Panchapakesan is survived by his wife Sandy and two children.