The founder of Yandex Ilya Segalovich passed away over the weekend at the age of 48. The?technology?father of Yandex, perhaps Russia’s top search engine site, succumbed to brain failure and stoppage of breathing.
Segalovich grew up in what was then a Soviet province of Kazakhstan. In high school, he met Arkady Volozh. Years?later, in 1993, with the?Internet/World Wide Web in it’s infancy, they came up with ‘a quick search engine for the end user’. It took a while to develop, but?by 1997, their search?engine was?launched for the Russian nation to use. In 2000, he and Volozh named it?Yandex. By 2011, Yandex was worth more than eight billion dollars.
But perhaps he’ll be recognized for things he did outside the computer world. In 1993, he and his wife founded a charity called Children of Mary. This organization helps give orphans education, employment and a decent shot at life. Many people praised him not for his business savvy, but his work as a human being and citizen of the world. Russian politician Alexei Navelny commended him for his modesty and finding ways to hold political leaders accountable, like making an app for election journalists.?Fellow Russian?Internet sharks say?he was a man not corrupted or spoiled by money,?fame or other trappings of success.
Maybe what they say really is true. Despite Segalivich’s wonderful contribution to technology, he’s getting more props for what he did as a man and how he carried himself. Makes us think about ourselves, doesn’t it?