David Heinemeier Hansson

David Heinemeier Hansson is a Danish programmer, entrepreneur, and writer. He is best known as the creator of the popular web development framework Ruby on Rails, which revolutionized the way web applications are built. He is also the founder and CTO of the web application company 37signals, which developed Basecamp, Highrise, and Campfire.

Heinemeier Hansson was born in Aarhus, Denmark. He studied computer science at Aarhus University but dropped out after two years to pursue a career in programming. After a few months of freelancing, he created the development framework Ruby on Rails, which he released in 2004. The framework quickly gained popularity and is now used by millions of web developers.

Heinemeier Hansson is also the co-founder and CTO of 37signals, a web application company that he founded with Jason Fried and Carlos Segura in 1999. The company has developed popular web applications like Basecamp, Highrise, and Campfire. Heinemeier Hansson is now focused on the development of Basecamp, which is a project management tool used by millions of people.

In addition to his programming and entrepreneurial work, Heinemeier Hansson is also a prolific writer. He has written several programming and web development books, including Rails 4 in Action and Getting Real. He is also an active blogger and speaker and regularly talks at conferences worldwide.

Heinemeier Hansson is an active philanthropist and environmentalist. He has donated to a variety of causes, including the WWF and the Copenhagen Climate Council. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Danish Refugee Council.

In 2011, Heinemeier Hansson became the first Dane ever to be awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award for his programming and web development contributions. He is also an honorary professor at Aarhus University, where he was a student before leaving to pursue his career.

Heinemeier Hansson is a passionate advocate for open source software development and is a regular contributor to open source projects. He is also a vocal advocate for reducing the environmental impact of the tech industry and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Copenhagen Climate Council. He is a strong believer in the power of technology to make the world a better place and is often quoted as saying “Technology is the most powerful tool we have to address the world’s problems.”