Kyril grew up in Moscow, where he trained with the Olympic Reserve swimming team and studied physics and mathematics at the world renowned Moscow University. In 1991, at the age of 16, he came with his mother and sister to the United States after his mother, Marina Braun, had landed a teaching position at Reed College (Portland, Oregon). He got his BS at Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), where he excelled both in academic studies and sports. Throughout the course of his studies, he was captain of the University swim team. One of his swimming records stood engraved on the wall in the RIT’s swimming pool for many years and was broken only recently.

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Kyril got his Masters in Computer Science from Oregon Graduate Institute and then went on to obtain an MBA from the University of Washington. 

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He had a zest for life and his interests, apart from his work, were many and varied: sports, fine arts, reading, mountain climbing, sky diving, scuba diving, kayaking, etc. He loved his work, his family, his many friends and colleagues. He was always there for everyone who needed his help or advice.  And he adored his two little girls, Avery and Pasha.

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Kyril Faenov was a general manager at Microsoft Corp., leading the Technical Computing Group, which encompasses the Parallel Computing Platform and Windows HPC Server. Faenov was an entrepreneur, technologist and executive with a 20-year track record of global impact in the high-technology industry. His aim is to build sustainable enterprises that deliver innovative, scalable solutions in the areas of scientific and technical computing, health and wellness, and education.

 

Faenov founded the High Performance Computing business unit in 2004 and led the development of Windows HPC Server, worldwide industry and academic partnerships. His previous contributions at Microsoft include running the planning process for Windows Server 2008, co-founding a distributed systems project in the office of the chief technology officer, driving cross-company strategic initiatives as a technical advisor to the Platforms Group vice president, and developing the Network Load Balancing scale-out technology in Windows 2000.

 

He joined Microsoft in 1998 as the result of the acquisition of Valence Research, an Internet server clustering startup he co-founded and grew to profitability by securing MSN, Microsoft.com and some of the world’s other largest websites as its clients. He was a principal technical member of two other parallel systems startups, as well as a software consultant to Intel Corporation on a variety of embedded and performance simulation projects. He held bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science with concentration in distributed systems and computational finance and an MBA in technology management.

 

Kyril was active in the Seattle entrepreneurship community as an angel investor and advisor to various early-stage startups. He was a member of the Alliance of Angels’ Screening Committee, the Social Venture Partners organization and the advisory board of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.

 

The world lost a beloved man on May 25, 2012. He will be greatly missed. He will always be admired and remembered by many. In fact, since his passing, a team at Microsoft named the Azure Virtual Cluster, the “Faenov” in homage to Kyril.