SORROW: – We have lost a very talented employee, says the CEO of the company Kindly, which the late Arash Saidi started in 2016. Photo: Julia Hrncirova / Abrakadabra
The Norwegian startup community is in mourning after Arash Saidi (39) lost his life in Verbier in Switzerland on Tuesday.
Thursday 14 March at 22:00
– We have lost a very talented employee, at the same time as we know that his deepest wish was that we should continue with his vision and build the company further, says Gunnar Bjørkavåg to VG.
He is the CEO of the company Kindly, which Saidi started in 2016 together with John Antonio Nilsen.
The company held a memorial service earlier on Thursday, the website writes Shifter.
– We have lost a very talented employee, says Bjørkavåg.
He has been chairman of Kindly for five years, and in January took over the position of managing director.
Saidi came to Norway from Iran as a young boy, says the colleague. He grew up in Kongsberg, and later took a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Oslo.
– He has been very visionary and a leader in every way. He was someone who knew a lot about artificial intelligence and its application, in addition to being an outgoing and pleasant fellow who had many acquaintances in the startup environment, says Bjørkavåg.
Saidi died on holiday in Switzerland, where he spent a week with a friend from Kongsberg.
– For me, you are an eternal role model. Proof that if man wants to, you can achieve anything. Now you, a brother, in work, work, mind and soul – have passed away, writes Murshid Ali about his co-founder in a memorial on Shifter.
The website writes that the obituary has been published in consultation with the family.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Thursday that a Norwegian had died in the Swiss Alps. According to the Swiss media, the Norwegian must have fallen off a mountainside.