Rajiv Dutta, former President of Skype and more recently a partner at private equity firm, Elevation Partners succumbed to colon cancer on January 31, 2011. He joined the private equity investment firm in November 2009, after spending nearly 10 years at eBay. He served as President of PayPal following his Skype stint. Prior to eBay he worked at a variety of companies including KLA-Tencor, a semiconductor equipment maker.
Dutta, who was born in India was a fellow alumni of St. Stephen’s College. Rajiv and I swapped emails a year ago but never really got to spend time together. Dutta had earlier fought the same colon cancer, but had a recurrence last year. Roger McNamee, partner at Elevation Partners and a well known amateur rocker, wrote a song, Angle of Repose in his memory. It is a touching tribute to a key member of our tech community.
