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This is the first picture of a “loved and respected” Google executive who died in a road accident at an advertising festival in Cannes.

James Howard, 29, was struck by a taxi on Sunday night after the first day of the week-long Cannes Lions event on the French Riviera.

Mr Howard, a Warwick University graduate, was the tech giant’s marketing lead in the UK and headed a team based at its Victoria office.

He was representing the firm at the annual global advertising and marketing industry awards where guests included Monica Lewinsky, Kim Kardashian and Pharrell Williams.

His family have travelled out to France as investigations into the crash continue. A neighbour said: “His sisters were distraught. They were in tears when they told us what happened.”

His parents Margaret and John Howard said in a statement today: "We lost our beloved son James in a tragic accident in Cannes this week. We ask that the media respect the privacy of our family, his partner Eleanor and James's friends at this very difficult time"

Mr Howard’s partner Eleanor Crabtree, who studied at the Courtauld Institute and is associate director at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in Mayfair, is also understood to have travelled out to France.

She and Mr Howard raised thousands of pounds for deaf-blind charity Sense on a charity trek through Cuba in November.

Well-wishers left a bouquet of roses on the doorstep of Mr Howard’s family home in Woodford Green.

One neighbour said: “It’s very sad news. They are such a nice family. We always found him very easy-going and approachable.”

Staff at Google today described a “sombre” atmosphere inside its offices, with one saying: “It’s simply awful, a real tragedy.”

The company said in a statement: “We lost a loved and respected member of our team. We are deeply saddened and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Mr Howard joined Google in 2012 and worked on high-profile projects including Inside Abbey Road — an interactive tour of the famous studio launched earlier this month — and Explore Loch Ness, which used Street View cameras to film the Scottish loch, allowing users to hunt for the legendary monster.

He moved to Google after working for MySpace, where he was responsible for a 2011 redesign which doubled the site’s usage and has since been adopted around the world.

Mr Howard is the second senior Google employee to be killed in recent months. In late April executive Dan Fredinburg died while climbing Mount Everest during the first Nepal earthquake.

The 33-year-old was privacy director for the Google X team, which is responsible for some of the search company’s more forward-thinking initiatives, including driverless cars and Google Glass.

Cannes Lions, which finishes tomorrow, has been disrupted by taxi drivers blockading streets in protest against the ride-hailing service Uber.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of the death of a British national in France. We are providing consular for the family at this difficult time.”