(Originally posted Saturday, June 22, 2013)
Ed Iacobucci, best-known as co-founder of Citrix Systems, died Friday morning after a 16 month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to a press release from VirtualWorks Group, another company he co-founded and where he served as Chairman. Ed was 59.
Ed was the IBM executive who oversaw (from their side) the OS/2 project with Microsoft. He left in 1989 to co-found Citrix, which took a source license of OS/2 and build a true multi-user operating system out of it. The company eventually did the same with Windows NT and now they’re in a lot of things, but most of their business is still based on the original notion of remoting user interfaces.
I first met Ed back in the early 90’s when Citrix was brand new and awe-inspiring and Ed was always a big part of what made the company impressive. I would run into him over the years and it was always a pleasant experience. Long after he left I couldn’t help think of Citrix as anything but Ed’s company. I’m very sad that I won’t see him again.
Larry J Seltzer 