Dave began his executive search career with Microsoft in 2001, supporting the global sales, marketing and services group along with product marketing functions across the company. He was also responsible for the international recruiting team, charged with hiring engineers from outside the United States into Microsoft’s development centers around the world. He led the executive search function for Starbucks as well as all of recruiting globally for Expedia before moving to Amazon in 2012.
Dave joined Amazon to run all of executive recruiting globally and spent the first five years focused personally on Amazon Web Services during a phase of very high growth. He then shifted his focus to supporting a subset of Amazon’s consumer businesses - namely Amazon Studios and Prime Video, Music, Advertising, Games, Devices and Services, and Project Kuiper (Amazon’s low earth orbit satellite constellation). Dave also supported the executive hiring needs of the founders of Twitch, Ring, Audible, and Whole Foods - all Amazon subsidiaries.
In 2021, he moved to Google, where he built the first executive search team dedicated to supporting YouTube. Dave’s role expanded during his tenure at Google and his team covered Devices and Services, Platforms and Ecosystems, and Core Services in addition to YouTube. He was also responsible for all Principal and Distinguished Engineer hiring across the company.
Dave formed the Blue Sky Exec Search Collective in early 2025 with a focus on supporting small to medium sized companies in the tech sector along with more traditional industries that are working to become more technology/AI forward. Blue Sky became part of Friisberg in 2026.
