SiliconBeat

Echelon President and Chief Operating Officer Bea Yormark passed away this weekend from complication related to a cerebral hemorrhage, the company announced today. She was 63 years old.

“It is impossible in just a few short sentences to describe the magnitude of the impact Bea made during her 18 years at Echelon or the depth of loss we feel,” said Ken Oshman, Echelon’s chairman and chief executive officer in a statement. “Bea was a brilliant strategist, an inspirational leader, a tough negotiator, and a caring friend. She was one of those rare people who made everyone around her better by inspiring them to find more in themselves than they knew was possible. Bea touched thousands of lives while at Echelon, and as word of her condition spread, customers and partners from around the globe called and wrote with kind words and warm prayers. They all feared that they might lose a friend. That was the sort of person Bea was … loved and respected by all who knew her. We will miss her greatly; yet we will still see her every day in the people she mentored, the teams she built, the values she instilled, the technology she helped launch, and the company that she helped to lead for so long. Echelon is part of her legacy, and one that will continue to make her proud.”

Echelon is celebrating its 20 year anniversary this year. The company was started by venture capitalist Mike Markkula in 1988 who wanted to embed technology in every single electronic device in your house or office. He enticed Ken Oshman, a founder of the legendary Silicon Valley telecom company ROLM (he’s the ”O” in the name) to head up the enterprise. Oshman hired Yormark two years later.

Our own Chris O’Brien wrote about the company last year, when its shares rose 158 percent as its stock finally took off along with its sales, as the company’s climate-control sensors have positioned the company as a green play. From Chris’s story:

“This belated success was the result of a decision a few years ago to change direction andpursue a new market selling “smart meters’ to utilities. That the company pulled it off is a testament to the patience and persistence of Oshman, the loyalty of his longtime lieutenant, Beatrice Yormark, the company’s president and chief operating officer, and the faith of the company’s major investors.”

Yormark joined the company in 1990 as its vice president of marketing and sales and became chief of operations in September 2001. Prior to joining Echelon Yormark was COO at Connect, an online information services company. Among her previous employers were Coopers & Lybrand, where she served as a partner, and the Rand Corporation, where she held various staff positions. She held a B.S. degree in mathematics from City College of New York and a M.S. degree in Computer Science from Purdue University.

Yormark’s passing will no doubt lend a bitter-sweetness to a 20th anniversary celebration being hosted by Markkula at his Little Theater in Woodside a week from tomorrow.  In addition to Markkula and Oshman, speakers scheduled for the event include Sun Microsystem’s Chairman Scott McNealy and Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, a one of Echelon’s North American customers.