Inga was a force of nature. No one who met her ever forgot her or her infectious smile.
Socially, in a room full of people having a good time, Inga was at the center having a better time than everyone else. At work, her sharp intellect, direct probing questions and no-nonsense attitude demanded attention and respect. Personally, she was fiercely loyal, incredibly loving and utterly devoted. Beyond all that, she was graceful, beautiful and 100 additional superlatives, none of which do her full justice.
She came to the United States with her family at a young age with nothing, fleeing persecution in the former Soviet Union.
From there, she charted an unusual career path beginning in fashion as a buyer for a local shoe and clothing store, eventually making her way to Napster where she pivoted into her first foray into talent acquisition. There she was so successful in hiring new employees that the commission-based structure she negotiated resulted in her making more money than most executives. After “turning out the lights” at Napster, she joined an environmental consulting company, where she again demonstrated talents far beyond what appeared on the face of her resume, eventually acting as more of a chief operating officer than an HR professional. From there, she moved skillfully from Tibco to WalMart eCommerce, where this immigrant woman lacking any kind of Ivy League education was promoted to Vice President of Talent Acquisition for WalMart eCommerce where she managed a team of over 100 employees and was responsible for hiring literally thousands of new employees during her tenure.
A veritable “who’s who” of top Silicon Valley companies then attempted to entice her away from WalMart. To one senior executive of a company that shall remain nameless, Inga looked him in the eye and without cracking a smile said, “if you want to hire me, you need to look at me like making a small acquisition of a company.” We called that “Inga’ing” someone. If you don’t ask for something, she would say, no one’s going to offer it to you. She had the rare ability to ask for the outlandish and make it seem not only reasonable, but in your best interests to give her what she wanted. Inga was worth every penny of the full acquisition price. And even though that particular company lacked the wisdom to see her full value, smarter companies did. Eventually, Google came calling, recognized Inga’s rare talents, and managed to convince her to join the Google team.
Inga loved her time at Google and loved her team. When her illness caused her to have to take a leave of absence, she would still check in with her team from her chemo bed – not because she was such a workaholic but because she missed her team and felt bad about leaving them. After her first round of treatment, when she received the “all clear” from her doctors, she could not wait to return to work.
No one handed Inga anything on her path from immigrant to successful Silicon Valley executive.
She forged her own path with her sheer force of will, tenacity and audacity. All the while, she made time to give back – she groomed her team and found them opportunities (to her detriment) outside her department. Ask any Inga team member – they would follow her wherever she went. She also served on the board of directors of Upwardly Global, an organization devoted to eliminating employment barriers for skilled immigrants and refugees, allowing them to better integrate into the professional U.S. workforce.
On top of all this, there was never a better spouse, mother, step-mother, sister, daughter, or daughter-in-law than Inga. Inga solved every family member’s problems and made every family member’s life better. Inga was rarer and more precious than the diamonds she loved and we miss her every minute of every day, which is poorer by far for her absence.
Help us honor the memory of this exceptional woman by donating generously to her Foundation.
Support the Inga Kulberg Tesler Foundation
If you want to honor Inga's memory and support the Inga Kulberg Tesler Foundation