Update - here is a reference to Mike Manos's post saying Adieu to Olivier
I just received the bad news that Olivier Sanche passed away on Thanksgiving Day. What first comes to mind is Olivier’s great family who I have had the pleasure of meeting many times.
His daughter Emilie is the same age as my daughter (both born in Sept 2001) and was Olivier’s inspiration to green the data center. I met Emilie 2 years ago and posted on her influence on Olivier’s environmental passion.
Leaving the conference, I ran into Olivier Sanche who I had blogged about at the Google data center event. We were chatting and he was short on time as he needed to meet his family. Olivier asked if I wanted to meet his daughter, Emilie Sanche. Why would Olivier want me to meet his daughter? Because I was the one who helped tell the story of how Olivier’s daughter was worried about global warming and the polar bears were going to drown.
A fond memory is also when Charles Kalko and I went over to Olivier’s house with his family for beer and pizza after his last day at eBay to celebrate his new beginning at Apple.
Apple didn’t know how important a data center person they hired until I blogged about his transition.
Apple Recruits eBay Data Center Executive Olivier Sanche, Can Apple Change Data Centers the way they changed cell phone and media players?
I have been lucky to meet eBay’s Sr. Director, Data Center Services & Strategy, Olivier Sanche at a variety of data center events and discuss many different green data center ideas. Last week, Olivier joined me as a panel member at Data Center Dynamics Seattle to discuss Carbon Reporting: Risk or Opportunity. Olivier took a position different than many that carbon reduction is a must, and should not be compromised.
This is a sad day as Olivier was first on my list today to reach out as I fly to SJ tomorrow. To hear before I even start an e-mail that Olivier passed away on Thanksgiving brings an end to one of the best data center friendships I have made.
Olivier loved being at Apple as he could do things he could get done no where else. He had vision, passion, and drive to do the right thing, especially for the environment. One of the sadder parts is Olivier couldn’t talk about what he was doing at Apple, but we had many other data center things we could talk about without touching on any Apple topics.
My trips to SJ are going to be one of my saddest trips for a long time as I know I can no longer visit my dear friend Olivier. But what is even sadder is thinking of Emilie no longer having her awesome Dad.
