David Henke


David Richard Henke is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and technical advisor. He served as the Senior vice president of Engineering and Operations for LinkedIn, a professional social networking website, from 2009 to 2013. Currently, he is an Advisory Board Member at NerdWallet. He is also a trustee for the University of California, Santa Barbara, and on the Dean's Cabinet for the School of Engineering. He has served as a Board Member and/or Advisory Board Member for a number of companies in the recent past, including successful exits at Avid Secure, SignfiAI, Turn, as well as Sean Parker's political advocacy startup, Brigade Media.

Early life and education

Henke holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Class of 1978.

Career

Henke joined LinkedIn in November, 2009, and ran all of technology for over two years and during the company's IPO. He then shifted to run product operations, IT, security, and data systems for the remaining two years. Prior to LinkedIn, Henke was the SVP of Engineering and Operations at Yahoo for over 4 years. He led a team of 500 engineers in Panama to overhaul the company's search marketing platform. He ran Engineering and Operations at AltaVista, an internet search engine company, from 1998 to 2002.
He has worked at Silicon Graphics, Hewlett-Packard, and co-founded two successful startups, CAE Systems and TeamOne systems, medicine, immigration reform, and foster care for children.