LEHI, Utah (ABC4) – A Lehi-based tech company co-founder and chief technology officer has died. He was 38.
In a letter to employees, MX CEO Ryan Caldwell says Brandon Dewitt passed away following a battle with cancer surrounded by family, friends, and his fiancé Kara.
“Since his Stage IV cancer diagnosis in 2016, Brandon not only survived – he thrived. Living each day with purpose and joy, and setting a passionate standard for excellence in everything he took on. He inspired us all to be better every day,” Caldwell says.
Dewitt attended Illinois State University where he first majored in art before switching to computer science. In September 2014, Dewitt was first diagnosed with cancer. According to MX, a financial data platform, Dewitt was found to have 14 tumors in his lungs and additional tumors on the left side of the face. He later learned he had Stage IV salivary acinic cell carcinoma.
“In a literal life-saving team effort, Ryan Caldwell and the MX engineering team went to work, getting Brandon’s genome sequenced and putting in long hours poring over research papers, teaching themselves about protein pathways and treatments that eventually led [Brandon] to a clinical trial in Seattle that would ultimately arrest the cancer,” the company says in a Wednesday release.
Dewitt met Caldwell during a trip to Utah, shortly after Caldwell founded Money Desktop, which would later be known as MX. In 2011, Dewitt merged his company, MyJibe, with Caldwell after MX acquired the company.
MX is now encouraging the community to make donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Dewitt’s name. To make a donation, click here.
