FalconStor Founder ReiJane Huai Dead of Apparent Suicide

ReiJane Huai, 52, founder of the Long Island-based storage company FalconStor, died Sept. 26, 2011, following a gunshot wound to the chest, which authorities believe was self-inflicted. Huai’s apparent suicide occurred roughly one year after he resigned from his CEO position at FalconStor amid a federal inquiry involving accounting questions.

In September 2010, The VAR Guy reported on Huai’s resignation, including the official statement:

The New York Post has reported that Huai soon would have been dealing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was probing a potential insider trading allegation in which “he and other top execs dealt 125,000 shares of stock at a artificially inflated price of $545,000.” Huai’s suicide reportedly came as a shock to all who knew him. Huai is survived by his wife and his adult children.

Huai’s legacy in the storage space will live on. He was CEO of Cheyenne Software, a data backup and recovery provider that was acquired by CA Technologies, which he then joined as vice president. Huai subsequently left CA and built FalconStor, bringing a robust base of former Cheyenne and CA Technologies brass with him. FalconStor, now headed by CEO James P. McNiel, continues to grow and focus on the IT channel.

Disclosure: The VAR Guy co-founder Joe Panettieri worked at Cheyenne Software in 1996, interacting with Huai from time to time as Cheyenne pushed into the Windows NT backup market. Within the halls of Cheyenne, Panettieri said, Huai was considered a technical visionary — often hosting white board meetings well into the evening with his lieutenants.

Huai, Panettieri said, seemed to always see a new opportunity in the storage market. And Huai was particularly loyal to developers who delivered code that fulfilled his storage vision.