This week, anyone who had the good fortune to cross paths with Ian Kerr is feeling a tremendous sense of loss. I encourage everyone to read a tribute to Ian penned by Professor Michael Geist, available on his blog.

I won’t match Michael’s eloquence, but I will say that Ian was an absolute giant in the privacy world, advancing certain concepts well ahead of many others in the field. Ian’s contributions to our field will continue for years to come. I remember once trying to keep up with him during a panel discussion at the IAPP Canada Symposium in which we grilled Siri with questions and spoke about the challenges of our traditional privacy paradigm when it came to AI and machine learning.

He contributed greatly to privacy, but Ian was also one of the most fun, down-to-earth people I can think of. He showed a genuine interest in everyone and everything. 

I’m sure everyone today is thinking about their favorite Ian connection. The memory I choose to remember most right now is when he came for a visit, with his daughter Ruby, a couple of weeks after we brought home our new puppy, Molly. 

Ian was curiously insistent they had to play with Molly right away because he knew the time with a cute little puppy is so fleeting.

I really admired Ian’s approach to seizing moments like these, I am of course thankful for his body of work, and I remain inspired by his kindness and generosity.