We remember with a sore heart our true friend, our excellent colleague, András Kerémi.
András was a rare person who could combine the rationality of an engineer with humanity, unbrokenly proclaiming the importance of good human cooperation, inspiring people to be imbued with positive feelings, the idea of cooperation, and advocate the importance of “doing the right thing”.
Here at E-Group, we have learned this from him, and this is the spirituality that we will nurture. Especially because if he looks down at us from behind his epic mustache with his bright, playful eyes, he can feel it’s worth it. He has left an indelible mark on our souls, the saying “we are moving forward” has become a classic.
He was one of the generation of engineers who had seen a soldering iron, designed a circuit, and assembled automation. In the heroic 1980’s he worked at Videoton as an electrical engineer. The company dealt with everything, including the CoCoM-listed, unavailable solutions from the West as well, which were invented and implemented locally. The engineering approach of that time, due to certain limitations, relied much more on its originality than on the ready-made solutions. The problems definitely had to be solved, but no one else solved them. Although it was a difficult time, he said, there were many solutions that were outstanding in terms of engineering.
András and E-Group have met at many points over the past 30 years. At the beginning of our career in the early ’90s, when the E-Group was established, he was the one who recognized in us, “young fools”, that we really wanted something to do. When we talked about asymmetric key encryption in 1994 and were looking for a smart card suitable for storing keys, he connected us directly with the inventors of the smart card (CP8) in Paris. We also meet later in joint projects and university collaborations.
In recent years, we welcomed him as a colleague, as a pillar and beloved member of our community. He led a very important E-Group project in the security-identification, while also weaving a network of innovation and industrial cooperation in a classy way.
During his long and successful professional career, he has made many acquaintances and friends worldwide. The younger generation watched András with glowing eyes and learned the profession from him.
But let’s face it: even more important than the profession was his humanity, and his curious love for his colleagues. We loved, respected him, and during his protracted illness, we cared for him as one.
With András, the noble and great man of the profession of engineer and engineer-trader has left, a huge void has been left behind, but nonetheless, his spirituality remains with us forever.
Thank you for everything András, call us, if you see some great opportunity for innovation, we will be ready waiting down here!
Keeping our common, beautiful memories in our souls, we are moving forward to honor your legacy.