PORTLAND — Sam Blackman, founder of Elemental Technologies and one of the brightest figures in Portland’s resurgent tech scene, died suddenly over the weekend from apparent cardiac arrest. He was 41.
A Portland native who grew up lifeguarding at a city pool, Blackman led Elemental from a tiny startup into one of the city’s major employers. The company sold to Amazon in 2015 for $296 million, but Blackman remained chief executive following the deal and the business expanded rapidly.
Two people with direct knowledge of the events confirmed Blackman’s death, but Elemental declined to address it. The company issued a brief statement: “Right now we are focused on supporting Sam’s family.”
Just last week Elemental, now known as AWS Elemental, moved into a spacious new headquarters at the south end of Broadway, where it now employs more than 400. Blackman hoped Amazon’s Portland outpost would eventually grow into a major economic engine for the region.
Word of Blackman’s death left Elemental employees heartbroken and numb. The news brought an outpouring of grief from Portland’s tech community on social media, with praise for his leadership and commitment to Portland.
After graduating from Brown University and earning a master’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley, Blackman went to work as an engineer for Pixelworks, then a promising video technology startup.
Blackman left in 2006 with colleagues to start Elemental, which capitalized on surging demand for streaming video over the internet. Elemental’s software used standard computers to adapt video streams for transmission online.
Many of the world’s top broadcasters use Elemental technology, among them ABC, the BBC, ESPN, HBO and PBS.
At Elemental, Blackman recruited a passionate crew of technologists who shared his vision for the company and community.
Blackman’s father was Marc David Blackman, one of Portland’s most prominent defense attorneys. He died in January 2014.
He is survived by his wife, Adriane, and two sons in elementary school.
