Seattle Sounders FC pay tribute to S. ‘Soma’ Somasegar, beloved tech leader and team owner

The Seattle Sounders paused before Thursday night’s rivalry match against the Portland Timbers to honor one of their own.

Before the match at Lumen Field, the club paid tribute to S. “Soma” Somasegar, the longtime Microsoft executive, Madrona venture capitalist and Sounders minority owner who died in May at age 59. Fans stood in silence as Somasegar’s image appeared on the stadium video boards.

Somasegar joined the Sounders ownership group in 2019, part of a wave of Seattle tech leaders — including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella — who bought in that year.

After his death, the club said Somasegar viewed sports as a way to bring people together, and credited him and his wife, Akila, with strengthening the Sounders and Seattle Reign communities.

GeekWire chronicled the outpouring of tributes after Somasegar’s death, as colleagues, founders and friends remembered the former Microsoft executive and venture capitalist for his humility, generosity and commitment to helping others succeed.

During his 27 years at Microsoft, he helped lead the company’s developer tools business before spending more than a decade at Madrona, where he backed and advised a new generation of cloud and AI startups.