We were saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Dave Hannebrink.  I know that many of our readers knew him personally, as did I.  He was always a gentleman, and very dedicated to the industry.

Many of you may have known him from the old Covalent days (Covalent is now owned by EFI).  Dave co-founded Covalent Systems, which became the leading provider of enterprise software and production data collection systems for suppliers in the printing and electronic publishing industries, achieving 35% market share with over 1,200 customers in 15 countries.

After a period of time as a consultant, Dave was recruited by Noosh founder Ofer Ben-Shachar in 1998 and co-founded Noosh, holding a number of sales, marketing, operations and strategy formulation positions there over the years.

Dave was always passionate about the mission of Noosh and about its role in the industry.  Although it is a private company, and has been through a number of changes over the years, we understand that it is profitable and growing, much of which can be attributed to Dave’s vision and dedication.

Mark Tiedens, Vice President of Marketing and Customer Operations, who has been with Noosh for a decade, said, “Dave was one of the reasons I loved coming to work every day.  He was smart and funny and had a great sense of integrity.” Those of us who knew him would agree, and he will be missed.

Dave started his career at Hewlett Packard, and served in marketing management positions at HP’s computer and software divisions. He also worked as a consultant to early stage companies. He held a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara.  He is survived by his wife and two children.

Our readers may wish to read the company’s blog post about Dave’s passing.