At least two top executives of U.S. technology companies were among those killed Tuesday in New York when the aircraft they were traveling on was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.
Daniel C. Lewin, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Internet communication company Akamai Technologies Inc., and Edmund Glazer, chief financial officer or Calif.-based optical networking company MRV Communications Inc. were both on board American Airlines flight 11.
The aircraft, which had 81 passengers and 11 crew on board, slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex shortly before 9 a.m. marking the start of a morning of carnage in New York and Washington, D.C.
“Danny was a wonderful human being,” said George Conrades, chairman and chief executive officer of Akamai, in a statement. “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.”
“This is a very sad day for MRV and for all who knew Edmund,” said Noam Lotan, president and CEO of MRV in the statement. “He was a true friend and his kindness and devotion will be deeply missed. We have lost a member of our family, and his loss is overwhelming to us all. Our thoughts and prayers are with Edmund’s family, friends and colleagues and all the families that have suffered personal losses during this tragedy.”
Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai provides content delivery service for leading Web technology firms. Geographically dispersed Akamai servers deliver advertisements, video, and other high-bandwidth content for the company’s clients. MRV, which is based in Chatsworth, Calif., is a holding company for several optical networking companies including Luminent Inc., Optical Access Inc., Touch Communications, Cescomm and NBase-Xyplex.
Lewin was 31 years old and is survived by his wife and two sons, Akamai said. MRV’s Glazer was 41 years old and is survived by his wife, Candy and son, Nathan.
The following is a list of IT-related companies that had offices in the World Trade Center towers:
Tower 1 – North Tower
– AT&T Corp., 51st floor. (unconfirmed)
– Avenir Inc., 78th floor. A software developer with offices in five U.S. states and India.
– Avesta Computer Services Ltd., 21st floor. An IT consulting and software services company, established in 1994, with three other offices in the U.S. and a development facility in India.
– Blue Sky Technologies Inc., 46th floor.
– Cheng Xiang Trading USA Inc., 22nd floor. (unconfirmed)
– EMeritus Communications, 83rd floor. (unconfirmed)
– Global Crossing Holdings Ltd., 83rd floor. (unconfirmed)
– Kanebo Information Systems Corp., 46th floor. The information systems division of Japanese cosmetics company Kanebo Ltd.
– Martin Progressive LLC, 77th floor. An IT consulting and outsourcing company with offices in six U.S. cities and London.
– Meganet Management Consultants Inc., 46th floor.
– Network Plus Inc., 81st floor.
– Securant Technologies, 79th floor.
– Strategic Communications Inc., 46th floor.
– Suggested Open System Inc., 46th floor.
– The Beast Dot Com Inc., 80th floor.
Tower 2 – South Tower
– Paging Network of New York, 14th floor.
– Sun Microsystems Inc., 25th and 26th floors. (unconfirmed)
The five companies marked “unconfirmed” were reported by the Associated Press to be present in the buildings although IDG News Service could not independently confirm these offices.