Dave Goldberg was the signature male feminist of his era

New York

EVEN as a high school student, Dave Goldberg was urging female classmates to speak up. As a young dotcom executive, he had one girlfriend after another, but fell hard for a driven friend named Sheryl Sandberg, pining after her for years. After they wed, Mr Goldberg pushed her to negotiate hard for high compensation and arranged his schedule so that he could be home with their children when she was travelling for work.

Mr Goldberg, who died unexpectedly on Friday, was a genial, 47-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur who built his latest company, SurveyMonkey, from a modest enterprise to one recently valued by investors at US$2 billion.