We lost a great member of the software development community today. Mansour Safai passed away peacefully in his sleep last night at around 2:45 AM. I remember being on several developer conference panels with Mansour and having great technical and business discussions in meetings, hallways, and airports. His impact in the development industry has been long and deep, heading the development of industry leading (and changing) products including the Multiscope Debugger, Symantec Visual Cafe, and M7 NitroX. We may have been competitors at times, but Mansour was always a professional and a gentleman.
Mansour Safai - Born: December 3, 1962 - Died: February 9, 2006
Born in Tehran, Iran December 3, 1962. Mansour Safai attended Lycee Razi in Tehran until age 11, he then transferred to Lycee d’Estienne d’Orves where he graduated with Scientific Baccalaureate with honors in Nice, France 1980. He then went to EPFL (Ecole Poly-technique Federal de Lausanne) in Switzerland where he completed his graduate study in computer engineering. He finished his thesis by completing a project for Logitech Switzerland in computer languages and debugging tools (Modula 2).
In 1987 he accepted a position as a Senior Software Engineer in Logitech U.S. (Fremont, California). After a few years at Logitech, he was running the software engineering group; with the help of the Board of Directors, he was able to spin off his group and product as a new company called Multiscope where he became the C.E.O. Eventually Symantec Corporation acquired Multiscope. Mansour continued to lead his team and pioneered products in C++ compiler, tools, debuggers, Java, Java Tools as well as enterprise software. He received numerous industry awards for Visual Café. He led his team as the Vice President and General Manager of the language and Internet tools division of Symantec Corporation. BEA acquired Mansour’s division; he then decided to start another company; his drive and passion never stopped. He started M7 where he again was the founder and C.E.O. This was Mansour’s final company. M7 produced the award winning NitroX. BEA recently acquired M7 (end of 2005). Throughout his career, with the help of his dedicated and talented teams, many throughout the world purchased and used Mansour’s products. He left a lasting impression with any person he had an interaction with; he changed many people’s lives for the better and no one will forget him. He was much more than a talented software engineer or executive, he was a visionary, a coach, a mentor and a great father to so many.
Not only was Mansour a dedicated professional, more and above all he was a devoted father, son, and brother. He loved music and sports. Mansour was a talented guitar player. He was also a real athlete; he was an astute tennis player, he won many tournaments in his years of high school. There was no mountain too challenging to ski down from and no water too choppy to water-ski across. If there are two main characteristics that defined Mansour throughout his life, the first one would be the unconditional love for his family especially the love he had for his son Nicolai and the second one would be his unstoppable will power, his integrity and the code of ethics by which he lived his life. He is loved by so many. He will be missed tremendously. He remains in our hearts forever. Mansour is survived by his son Nicolai, his mother Parvaneh, his sister Massy and his brother Mammad. God bless him.
Funeral Service:
10 AM – February 11th (Saturday)
Alameda Family Funeral
12341 Saratoga Sunnyvale Road
Saratoga CA 95070
In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be sent to John Hopkins Hospital, Dr. John Laterra research fund, Baltimore Maryland.
{ 24 } Comments
What a wonderful commentary on a great guys work, life and impact.
He will be missed.
dale
yeah, he really will… I think he would have accomplished many more things in this world had he had the chance, he never missed an oppurtunity.
Mansour
tu as touche l’ame de tout le monde. Tous les gens qui t’ont connu t’ont aime. Tu etait une vraie force de la vie. Ton impact au monde restera pour toujours.
A toi le champion
Ya, he will be missed by all of us. But he is always watching…always watching. (Nico: He watches you all the time. He will watch you when you score a basket in b-ball. He will watch when you watch friends. He will laugh with you when you laugh at joey from friends. He will watch when you do homework. Also, most of all, he will watch when you think of him. While that happens, he will think of you. About how much he loves you. How much you love him.
By reding what he accomlished,not only he was a gentlemen, but also a hero to world technology and to his family–it is unfortunate and devastating news that we sometimes hear, talented peoples like mansour had to faced with. he will be missed. God bless his family.
Touching person, impressive career, terrible loss! Nicolai and the rest of the familly, Mansour’s friends and old school mates here in Switzerland are all with you.
It has been a long time but I remember you well my dear friend Mansour. God bless you and rest in peace
Mansour was the best man I know. He lives in all of us. Those of us who were fortunate enough to have ever interacted with such a wonderful man would agree with me: Mansour was an angel from the start. I cherish all the memories, no man has ever had a better brother. I will see him again.
"… and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun."
—Romeo and Juliet, Act 3, Scene 2
I remembered using Visual Cafe when it first came out. What a great tool? Way ahead of its time. Mansour, you will be missed.
Having worked for Mansour on VisualCafe I got to know him as a technical visionary, savy business man and charismatic leader. At M7, I got to know him as a friend and a devoted man who loved his family so very much. I will miss him. God bless.
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This is qutie shocking!
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I worked with Visual Cafe from early on. In fact, I used it to debug some nasty bugs in the first implementation of RMI-IIOP, which was a collaborative project between Sun and IBM —
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I had heard about Mansour and always wanted to meet him but it was never to be.
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Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Rajioon —
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I know Mansour from Lausanne, Suisse:
A man of thousands of qualities…
1- he belonegd to the " elite intelectuel", what a pleasure to talk to him he had very profound ideas, very logical reasoning., someone you had unforgatable time with
2- he belonged to the "elite social", by his culture, his attitude, his moral values and his family
3- he knew how to takethings with humour
4- Most of all he was a real friend. Having Mansour as a friend was a mine of gold.
5- this is for the French speaking and those who know Lausanne:
he was the king of "derapage controle sur la neige et la glace
You see Mansour you leave an unforgatable impression on who ever you met.
I hope your son will dicover what a great father he had and maybe his friends can write to his son to let him know his father much better, as he did not get the time
Herve
I used Symantec Visual Cafe a long time ago. You were doing great products and I’m sure you let a little of your soul in each of us thru those products.
We miss you Mansour.
Be sure your son will proud of you.
God Bless You
Christian
Hi my name is Nicolai Safai, I am Mansour’s son.
I love him and will miss him for the rest of my life even though he will be there with me forever. I am going to miss doing the things we used to do. It never mattered what we did, it was always fun.
I loved everything about my dad.
I loved the arguments that we had after playing games. Sometimes I would give up and quit but he would say “just let me do it”. He never quit. At night, even though we were both the most stubborn people, we would tell each other the other person was right and then we’d go to sleep. Sometimes we would stay up until 2 in the morning making sure the last game we played we would win.
I remember when we went to Zermatt; and I was about 11; we discovered Zermatt together, and had the best time. It’s the most fun trip I’ve ever had, we stayed at hotel Mont Cervin where we’d get ready to ski, have pear juice and omelettes in the morning and take the lift up. The first lift wouldn’t take us to the peak but we were too impatient to ski and would ski down at least one slope before taking the long trip to the peak. Then we’d have a warm lunch somewhere and most oftenly eat the same exact thing. Afterwards we’d jump back out on the slopes and continue skiing for hours before I’d tell him my muscles were starting to hurt. We’d ski down and walk back to the hotel with skis in our hands. Behind the hotel we’d put them into their spots and go into the hotel’s restaurant. We’d have the best shoestring fries with an apple cider each and go back up to the room to relax. I don’t know what we came up with to do in the room, but it always ended up being something new that we’d have a blast doing.
I hope I will live my life in a way that my dad would be proud of, I never want to disappoint him. Before taking any action or saying anything, I will think of what my dad would do or say and then I will act accordingly knowing I did the best thing possible.
I know he is watching over me. I love him and admire him, I adore him with all of me, he’s not just a part of me he’s half of me, and I love him, up to the universe, and back, like we always used to tell each other. We agreed on everything and did everything the same, we have the same taste and sense of humor, in family reunions we’d say jokes we’d be the only ones laughing at. One thing we never agreed on was who loved the other more, but I can a compromise now, we loved each other the same amount, the biggest amount in the world. I wouldn’t know how to describe it, or if I did, we’d still be here tomorrow talking about it. But I’ll say just like always did, I love you more papa, don’t boro baba me. It’s just like that, it’s a fact.
Forever I’ll remember you as the strong dad you always were for me and remember you by that, remembering all the fun things we did together. I’m really going to miss so many things we did, that were only fun with you, that I could only do with you. I know what it is you want for me and so that’s what I’ll do, and I’ll do the best I can in my life, trying my best to resemble you and make you proud, you’re my hero and my idol, I’ll love you forever and you’ll be in me and my children forever. I love you daddy.
hmm… interesting technology… need to try.. thanks for the tip
from the early days in Menlo Park when I stayed with Mansour and his brother, when we were just starting our careers, it was clear that he was going to accomplish great things. the last time I saw him was at the M7 offices on Middlefield Rd. and he was there working away on a weekend afternoon by himself…
always a visionary and a tireless worker but beyond that, always a wonderful human being with immaculate ethics and standards.
we ALL miss you Mansour!
Mansour
I came to read a quotation of Rumi today:
"And if every way is closed before you
The secret one will show a secret path
No other eyes have seen"
It sounds just like the quotations you always had for me.
I miss you so much
Massy
Such sad news :’(
David
I am Mansour’s sister.
Thank you for all you have done for my brother.
would you be knid enough to contact me
Thanks
Mansour is a friend and colleague from my days at Symantec. Although we had lost touch over the years I did know that Mansour had passed away last year. Today he was in my thoughts again. As I read these tributes a wave of immense sadness finally hit me. I wept for someone who leaves the world greatly diminished with his passing. I would like to offer my very best wishes to Mansour’s family and to Nicolai in particular - your words mean a lot to your dad. Love.
I know Mansour from Lausanne, Suisse:
A man of thousands of qualities…
1- he belonegd to the " elite intelectuel", what a pleasure to talk to him he had very profound ideas, very logical reasoning., someone you had unforgatable time with
2- he belonged to the "elite social", by his culture, his attitude, his moral values and his family
3- he knew how to takethings with humour
4- Most of all he was a real friend. Having Mansour as a friend was a mine of gold.
5- this is for the French speaking and those who know Lausanne:
he was the king of "derapage controle sur la neige et la glace
You see Mansour you leave an unforgatable impression on who ever you met.
I hope your son will dicover what a great father he had and maybe his friends can write to his son to let him know his father much better, as he did not get the time
evden eve nakliyat
thenkss
thank you
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