The death of the 47-year-old SurveyMonkey CEO was first reported on Sunday. Goldberg, a long-time resident of Silicon Valley, was married to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and has been described by Mark Zuckerberg as “an amazing person.”
The Guardian reports that the cause of his death has now been revealed. Goldberg was on holiday with family friends at a private resort in Mexico and collapsed while in the gym facility available to guests.
The New York Times reports that Goldberg left his room at 4 p.m. Friday. When he failed to return on time, his brother Robert went to find him and came across his body on the floor of the gym at 7 p.m. He died of head trauma and blood loss and appeared to have fallen off the treadmill, cracking his head open in what is thought to be a tragic accident.
A spokesperson for SurveyMonkey told the Guardian last night: “According to a source close to the family, Dave Goldberg was on vacation with family and friends in Mexico. He collapsed while exercising in the gym. Efforts to revive him at the gym and at a local hospital were unsuccessful.”
The safety of treadmills has come into question since the incident. The BBC reports that 24,000 people were given medical attention in hospital for a treadmill-related injury last year but minor slips and strains formed the majority of incidents. You are apparently more likely to be killed by lightning than by using a treadmill. There were 30 reported deaths from 2000-2012.
The news of Goldberg’s death has led to thousands of messages of condolences for the former Yahoo worker and digital entrepreneur. His first enterprise was an online music company called Launch Media that he sold to Yahoo in 2001. He later ran the Yahoo Music division before becoming CEO of SurveyMonkey in 2009, which he has grown to over 25 million customers.
The New York Times reports that the family is holding an invite-only celebration of Goldberg’s life today. Men are urged not to wear ties in homage to Goldberg’s lifelong hatred of them. Dave Goldberg will be remembered and missed by many as one of the most important figures in Silicon Valley’s relatively short history.
