darrylfeldman.com

About.

I have been working in the interactive media industry for over 15 years and have seen the internet grow dynamically from humble beginnings through to dotcom boom and bust and then back to growth and web 2.0 hype. I am currently trying to figure out how to shrink the internet onto mobile devices, whilst enjoying family life in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin.

A smile, a laugh and a hug – these are the things that spring to mind when remembering Ian.

I first met Ian in London in 2001 when I joined Sapient. He was the first senior manager who gave me a run down of the company culture and how best to operate effectively within it. This was critical for me as the company definitely had some cultural quirks, was very US centric and quite different from the work environments I had experienced up until then. Ian was quick to spot this and mentor me into a shape that would somehow fit the company plus leverage my personality and skills. I soon became part of Ians’ team focusing on Telecommunications, Media and Government projects, he was great at building business, his knack for building relationships with clients came into play here. We also spent quite a bit of time developing pitches, Ian seemed to love this as it was a more creative process and allowed him to use his imagination and vision. I personally enjoyed working with him very much at that time, it was a lot of fun and he made it easy to get motivated and come into work in the mornings. We traveled to New York to setup a team to work on a client based out of New Jersey, Ian was very proud of his home town and was quick to show us brits around and introduce us to fellow Sapient colleagues there. Having fun outside of work was equally important to Ian, this is where the real team building activity occurred – and Ian knew all the cool places to go in Manhattan to eat and drink. Over time I grew very fond of Ian and we became friends outside of work, as did many other colleagues of our at the time. Ian was always keen to bring people together to celebrate life, living for the moment you could say. But Ian could be serious too and was very supportive whenever I had any personal crisis and helped give me perspective when I was going through my divorce, helping me to focus on work and the future -  I will always be thankful to him for that.

After leaving Sapient we remained good friends and met up occasionally to have a drink at The Sanderson, which seemed to be one of his favourite haunts at the time, life was an endless bustle down there and I met a few of his exotic friends. I moved to Germany shortly after this and we remained in touch online, facebook etc. The last time we connected he told me that he was hoping to ’swing by’ in Berlin soon, I was hoping for this.

Ian will be missed, there is no doubt…he must have hundreds of friends all over the globe who I am sure all feel a personal loss of some kind. My condolences go out to his family – who I heard a lot about but never met.

His humanness, warmth, humour and ability to life life to the full is an inspiration to all of us.

Prentious, poetic, poignant, ferocious and just damn funky. The Pop Group were my favourite band in the early eighties…holding up a mirror to the nightmare of Thatchers’ Britain.