Ilmo was Creative and Funny

• He could make the most boring topic interesting with pop culture references. He’s a “meme machine.” 
• He set the bar for a compelling research talk whether in academia or at one of the many tech companies he worked at. 
• Ilmo once made an entire presentation about social habits with a Breaking Bad theme while working at Facebook. 
• He loved a good play on words, wishing everyone a “Superb Owl for all that celebrate”.  

Ilmo was a Loving Husband 

• His wife says “Ilmo is a unicorn.” 
• He’s a rock of calmness and stability. 
• He’s a feminist, often advocating for marginalized groups, or marching for causes he and his wife believe in.
• He loved to cook. On most days he cooked breakfast and dinner. 
• He was nerdy. He was romantic. He wrote Hayzell silly love songs. 
• Ilmo always insisted that housework was split in half. He was keenly aware of the invisible mental load that falls on women’s shoulders. And when needed, he would step up even more.
• He practiced and asked Hayzell’s parents for permission to marry her in their native language: Spanish. 
• He proposed to his wife by faking car trouble and through an elaborate sequence of events, they ended up at a secret beach with an exploding heart-shaped fire burning on the sand. 

Ilmo Was a Father

• He tucked his son in every night, helped with brushing and flossing side-by-side, and would read a story, have a little time to talk, or lead a calming meditation.
• When his son had a nightmare, he also called for “Isi” (daddy in Finnish). 

Ilmo was a Caring Friend, Colleague, Manager and Mentor

• Ilmo embraced a people first leadership style throughout his career. He adhered to three core principles: genuine care, serving others, and the employee experience both as a leader or colleague.
• His team describes him as “kind,” “brilliant,” “calm,” and “a shining beacon of light.” 
• He was someone who made sure you balanced work with life. 
• Someone who led with empathy. Someone who takes the time to ask, “Yes, but how are you?”
• Someone who kept mentoring, even after you leave his team. 
• Someone who loved to teach to anybody who asks for it.
  • A colleague still remembers Ilmo’s lesson on data organization: “There are 2 types of people in the world: Those who use underscores when naming their data columns … and A-holes.” 
• When you were having a professional crisis or a personal crisis – you called Ilmo. He would get you through it. 
• Ilmo was generous with his network and contacts. He was always a source of referrals and connections and helped many friends and friends-of-friend pass an interview and land a job. 

Ilmo was a Scientist

• Ilmo studied compassion, prosocial emotion, and social networks at Berkeley, Oxford, and Cambridge, and published research in peer-reviewed journals, earning over a thousand citations. 
• His work can also be found in book chapters in the social sciences.
• When he submitted his thesis, his committee said it was the equivalent of 3 theses and passed him with zero corrections (a rare feat).
• In industry, Ilmo is an author on 5 patents– including a method for making sure when monitoring a self-driving car, the safety driver is actually paying attention (and not sleeping).
• Ilmo expanded how research was done at Google. Creating the first mobile research lab in a van so researchers could travel to far off locations. Ilmo wanted to reduce bias and ensure that products are built for everyone.
• Ilmo’s last area of work involved managing researchers and doing quantitative research within the machine learning and artificial intelligence space.