Haraldur Diego (Haddi) – Pilot, a good friend and human

Last week was hard. My good friend Haddi whom I have known for over a decade now, passed away in a bizarre accident. Haddi was one of the most generous, warm and giving humans that I got to know living in Iceland. He was always ready to help and understand what I was trying to do during the early days of launching Startup Iceland. He was a founder at heart and was a damn good pilot. He was always eager to take people up in the plane and show them the beauty of Icelandic nature. I was one of the recipients of his generosity. He will be missed dearly.

I met Haddi in 2012 while we were planning the first Startup Iceland event. He immediately offered to help and make connections to bring this entrepreneurial event to life. He participated in all the activities and was an eager learner. Before the Startup Iceland event, he was always ready to share a ride with me to pick up guests of Startup Iceland irrespective of what time the flight came in. One of the guest speaker Ted Zoller event got a chance to go up with Haddi during the lunch break of Startup Iceland 2013. He was spontaneous and generous. I even want to say that Startup Iceland really kicked off his entrepreneurial spirit. He started a business of taking people up to take pictures of Iceland and it paved the way for him to start the VolcanoPilot. He always reached out to me with all his entrepreneurial questions and growing his business and I was always eager to help him.

He made a lot of friends which is obvious due to his warm personality. He managed to create enough memories of him flying and capturing Iceland that we will remember him for a long long time. He also was very creative and published a photo book with Marco Nescher, Über Island: Entdeckungen von oben (Above Iceland – explorations from above).