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SurveyMonkey's CEO Dies While Vacationing With Wife Sheryl Sandberg

Posted by timothy on from the short-life dept.

McGruber writes: Dave Goldberg, the chief executive of SurveyMonkey and spouse of Facebook COO Sheryl K. Sandberg, died on Friday night. He was 47. 'We are heartbroken by this news,' Facebook said in a statement. Mark Zuckerberg, a friend of the family, said that Mr. Goldberg died while on vacation abroad with Ms. Sandberg. Goldberg built Surveymonkey into a provider of web surveys on almost every topic imaginable, with 500 employees and 25 million surveys created. News reports said it was valued at nearly $2 billion when it raised a round of funding last year.

25 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. Survey: How Does This Make You Feel? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    A) Sad
    B) Happy
    C) Indifferent
    D) None of the Above

  2. Predictable by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dude was fat and lead a stressful life. Under these conditions, such things happen.

    This is not a slight or an insult, it is a statement of fact about the general lifestyle of Americans like myself: Diet, exercise, and stress reduction, unless you want to go at 45, 50 or 60 (and 60 is the new 45) ...

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Predictable by eulernet · · Score: 2, Informative

      He doesn't seem overweight for me.

      I don't believe he led a stressful life.
      But I'm sure he never listened to his own body, because he was completely obsessed with his job.
      Heart attacks have clear symptoms, and if you are a "normal" person, as soon as you have an alarming symptom, you go immediately check your health with a doctor.
      He probably over-exhausted his body, working 12 to 16 hours every day, never listening to his body, and having a weak heart.
      This reminds me of Karoshi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

    2. Re:Predictable by NoKaOi · · Score: 2

      I don't believe he led a stressful life.

      ...

      He probably over-exhausted his body, working 12 to 16 hours every day

      Um......

    3. Re:Predictable by metlin · · Score: 4, Informative

      He doesn't seem overweight for me.

      While I feel for the family, to say that he is not overweight shows just how much society's perception of being overweight has changed.

      Take a look at this picture, for instance.

      And take a look at the body fat visual chart for comparison.

      With the overhanging belly, he is easily 35-40% at least. While the majority of people today are fat (especially in the US), that is not healthy. If anything, until recently, 20-25% used to be average.

      Above 25-30% is the fat territory, and that's when you start increasing your risk for heart attacks, diabetes, and strokes. Mr. Goldberg may have had a lot of things going for him, but he is most certainly more than a little overweight.

      Assuming he's ~6 feet, I would argue that he is probably ~30-40+ lbs overweight. That is not at all healthy. I'm not arguing everyone should have abs, but there's a happy medium here. Mr. Goldberg is very clearly on the unfortunate side of the medium.

  3. Some random CEO passed away? Oh noes! by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 2

    If it were Gates/Jobs/Ellison/Woz/McNealy/Bezos/Dell....OK. That warrants a thread here.
    But the CEO of some random online survey company?

    Oh wait....Facebook related....gotcha.

    1. Re:Some random CEO passed away? Oh noes! by roninmagus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not really random; SurveyMonkey is THE goto survey company online, as far as valuation.

    2. Re:Some random CEO passed away? Oh noes! by DamonHD · · Score: 3

      Someone like many of us, and/or with a life many of us would aspire to, of an age similar to the likely median here (indeed I am a newly-minted 47-year old tech CEO, though not in his league nor in the Valley), white collar, dies suddenly.

      It's shocking.

      And though most deaths in the news can be dismissed as "would never happen to me because $HUGE_DIFFERENCE", this is less easy to dismiss, even if it turns out ultimately to be just bad luck.

      Don't be so airily heartless: this is some genuine human interest for nerds, even if maybe no huge shakes in the big scheme of things.

      Rgds

      Damon

      --
      http://m.earth.org.uk/
  4. Re:Ms or Mrs? by worf_mo · · Score: 2

    TFS could have gotten her name right in the title, though.

  5. Re:Ms or Mrs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you do not change your last name after getting married, it is common to keep Ms., instead of using Mrs. Both are correct:

    Mrs - married
    Miss - not married
    Ms - married or not married

  6. Re:Old Slashdot chuggin' along by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm more confused by the summary that reads more like an advert than anything resembling mourning.

  7. Re:Ms or Mrs? by McGruber · · Score: 2

    TFS could have gotten her name right in the title, though.

    I don't know how I screwed that up but I did -- "Susan" was the name I put in the title of my submission.

  8. Come on, Slashdot, at least get her name right! by AdamHaun · · Score: 5, Interesting

    SurveyMonkey's CEO Dies While Vacationing With Wife Susan Sandberg

    Dave Goldberg, the chief executive of SurveyMonkey and spouse of Facebook COO Sheryl K. Sandberg, died on Friday night.

    Her name is Sheryl. It's fairly well-known. How do you screw this up when the correct name is in the first sentence of the summary?

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    Visit the
    1. Re:Come on, Slashdot, at least get her name right! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      He probably died after calling her Susan.

    2. Re:Come on, Slashdot, at least get her name right! by Lost+Penguin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just don't call her Shirley....

      --
      I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
  9. Sheryl or Susan? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

    The summary says Sheryl and the title says Susan. Susan Sandberg is an NPR reporter famous for the cranberry relish recipe and a cute story that goes with it.

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    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  10. Re:isnt..... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    I'm sorry, I have a cold.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  11. Re: Some rich guy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You think Surveymonkey was a contribution to society?

  12. Note to Self by Tau+Neutrino · · Score: 4, Funny

    After reading the comments here, and noting the level of caring, consideration and sympathy for a family going through very difficult circumstances, I've concluded I should never die.

    --
    Lemmings are silly; dinosaurs are extinct.
  13. Re:isnt..... by KingAdrock · · Score: 2

    That was Punch The Monkey.

  14. Asshole by vanye · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What a bunch of assholes you all seem to be.

    Someone dies. A spouse, father and son, and everyone's reaction seems to be along the lines of "good riddance". Two children are going to grow up without a father and your best attempt at humanity is "ohh another 1%-er died - so what"

    Is this news - no, but it is social interest. Its a reminder to live whatever life you have to the best you can, because you never know when you'll die.

    So get out of your parent's basement and do something today that makes people proud to know you.

    richard - 48, overweight, stressed, 2%-er

    1. Re:Asshole by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A million other people died today as well. Why are we talking about this guy?

      Because sycophants love to idolize the rich.

  15. Re:the article title makes the death sound suspici by Fnord666 · · Score: 2

    I think it is strange that someone is vacationing with their spouse now.

    His mistress must have had a previous engagement.

    --
    'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
  16. Re:Cause of Death by Midnight_Falcon · · Score: 2
    I've been asking this question since seeing his death announcement -- coverage in the NYTimes and elsewhere has been nothing short of propaganda for him with zero mention of the reason for his death. Honestly, SurveyMonkey needs to go away..consumers are over-surveyed already; and it is the poster child for annoying, spammy messages for surveys that require a lot of time; I don't think this guy needs a state funeral.

    So what happened? Extremely mega-rich (we're talking top percentile of the 1% here) people don't tend to just die suddenly in their mid-40s for no reason. Drugs? Murder? No one is saying anything; and I find this quite strange.

  17. Re:Cause of Death by Midnight_Falcon · · Score: 2
    Taking some time to google this, many others have the same question. The internet's working theory: It was suicide.

    While this is pure speculation, it makes a lot of sense in the context of how shady the revelation of his death has been. Had it really been suicide, it completely discredits Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In" book and much of her preaching. In addition, it shows a lot of the propaganda about him being such a nice guy and caring for the kids wasn't on point...no loving father offs himself for selfish reasons before his children are of age.

    There's also a deleted tweet that seems to indicate the couple was in DC, not in some undisclosed location "abroad," at the time of death. It makes sense to lie about this so people don't go getting records from DC about cause of death, autopsy, etc.