· While exercising during a family vacation, SurveyMonkey’s CEO Dave Goldberg died suddenly at the age of 47. Goldberg grew SurveyMonkey from 12 employees to 450 and to a $2 billion valuation. He was considered an irreplaceable talent.
· Steve Jobs was able to save Apple after he came back as CEO in 1996, but ironically was not able to save himself and passed away at the age of 56 from pancreatic cancer.
· Autumn Radtke, the 28-year-old CEO of Bitcoin exchange First Meta, jumped to her death in Singapore on 26 February 2014. On February 10th she posted a link to an essay entitled ‘The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship’ and commented that everything had its price.
· Steven LeVoie founder of Arrowstream was shot by one of his own top lieutenants, at the age 54 in 2014.
· Michael Walsh, age 51 and CEO of Tenneco, succumbed to brain cancer.
· McDonald’s 60-year-old CEO, Jim Cantalupo, died of a heart attack in 2004. The board hastily replaced him with 43-year-old Charlie Bell, who died nine months later.
· Kate Spade built an iconic fashion brand only to pass at age 56 after suffering severe bouts of depression.