We are all still shocked about the tragic news we received Monday morning. Nicholas Kruse, long friend and co-founder of BizSphere died on Saturday, 3rd of July, 2010 during the “Gobi March 2010″ in Northwest China. He was only 31 years old.
Nick was with us since the early beginning. Some of us knew him years before and developed a deep friendship with him. As the creative director, he played a crucial part in the development of our company’s vision along with the concepts behind the user interface of BizSphere applications. He was a key contributor to the solution breakthrough in our first customer projects. With his company ReignDesign in Shanghai, he also brought in the first front end development team for our company that has remained a close development partner to this day.
In his work we valued his artistic talent, his sharp mind and also out-of-the-box ways. As a friend, we benefited from his insights, his ears to us, his care, his hospitality, his ability to party, his loyalty and his smile. We also all looked up to him for his incredible knowledge about China. He spoke Chinese fluently and had a deep understanding of Chinese history and culture. That made him one of our key anchors of our presence in the People’s Republic.
His spirit was always free, not bound to conventions, preconceived ideas or norms. Until his last moments, Nick was a free man.
The entire team is feeling terribly saddened about the unbelievable loss of our great friend and colleague. We will miss him as we go forward and it will not be the same without him. His spirit, his vision and his ideas will live on in us.
Our hearts and prayers go out to his family, his girlfriend and friends. We cannot even fathom the pain and frustration they have to go through. We would like to thank Andrew Kruse (his brother) and Fei Lin (his girlfriend) who were in Urumqi right after Nick was brought to the hospital and stayed with him the entire three days until he passed away. Thank you Andrew and Fei!
We will keep Nick in our minds forever.
Nick, may you rest in peace our friend!
The entire BizSphere team
PS: Please see below a couple of further links
- In memories to Nicholas Kruse, the folks of ReignDesign have put together this site.
- Please also see his memorial page on facebook especially the description of his last days.
