Paul Zuhorski Passed Away on January 25, 2024

Paul Zuhorski passed away on January 25, 2024.

He was born in Farmington, MI on June 27, 1967. He is survived by his wife, Marianne, their daughter Francesca and son Luca; his father, Donald Zuhorski; his mother, Leona Marie (Charboneau) Beauchamp; and sisters, Mary Paul and Terry Tabaczynski.

Behind the mild-manner and humility was a man of great intelligence, insight, and intuition. He dedicated most of his professional life to the storage industry. For him, this dedication is reflected in the commitment, contribution, and conviction with which he always conducted himself.

For him, commitment to the industry included respecting, understanding, and empathizing with the challenges, realities, and evolving needs of the enterprise customer. He used this knowledge to evolve products and solutions that benefited the customer and made the companies for which he worked more successful.

During his career, in which he held senior software product management and leadership roles at Legato (acquired by EMC); executive director of the advanced solutions group at ADIC (acquired by Quantum); SVP of development for network storage systems at Xyratex (acquired by Seagate); VP of software product management at Virident; and senior principal product management roles at Amazon AWS.

As a contributor, he founded 2 companies in the early 2000s – Invio Software and LightFlash Technologies, which were acquired by Veritas and Virident (now Western Digital) respectively. Between these 2 companies, he and his team developed technologies that underpin core software and hardware we almost take for granted today.

Invio’s process automation engine, which was embedded into Veritas CommandCentral, contributed to policy driven provisioning and management of multi-vendor storage, servers, and other hardware infrastructure that we deem as foundational when it comes to IT administration. Zuhorski’s foresight of the storage industry motivated him to found LightFlash and developed technologies for NAND flash-based storage that were integrated into Virident’s product line, at a time when the idea of affordable flash storage was still nascent.

His commitment and contribution to the industry came with great conviction. He had a genuine desire to further and advance our industry. He sought out the guidance and knowledge of others. He valued this input equal to his own experience and expertise in forming his opinion and perspective.

Putting forward one’s perspective and subjecting it to critique is never easy. It also requires great strength and conviction to defend that perspective. But Zuhorski’s conviction didn’t stop there. He developed and brought to market the products and technologies based on what he believed in, that helped advance the industry and create value to enterprise customers.

Ben Woo, Neuralytix, said:” He inspired me. He encouraged me. He challenged me. I admired Paul. I’ve known Paul and his family for over half my life. Paul’s friendship had a significant impact on me that will last my lifetime. I am very lucky that our families are close. The memory of Paul, his spirit, and his legacy will continue to live on through his family.“