Blake Krikorian, American businessman and entrepreneur, Died at 48

  Business

Blake G. Krikorian was born on August 8, 1967, and died on August 3, 2016.

He was an American technology executive and entrepreneur, co-founder of Sling Media.

He worked first at General Magic, then in 1994 was a co-founder of Philips Mobile Computing Group, where he was Group Product Manager. He then became Senior Vice President at Metis Associates and led its incubation of Mainbrace Corporation.

During 2004, he co-founded Sling Media, a consumer electronics company that builds the Slingbox, with his brother Jason Krikorian.

Krikorian served as its CEO. It was purchased in 2007 by Echostar Communications for $380 million; Krikorian remained CEO and a company director until 2009.

During January that year he became CEO of id8 Group Productions, where he founded id8 Group R2 Studios in 2011; after that company’s acquisition by Microsoft, he became head of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business division.

He served on the boards of a number of companies, including Amazon.com in 2011–2012.

Krikorian was also a board partner at the venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz and was an angel investor in companies including Clicker.com, FreeWheel, Jaunt, Doppler Labs, and Thync.

Blake was married and has two daughters.

He died due to a heart attack, after paddleboarding in Pacifica, California.

Blake Krikorian passed away at 48 years old.