Work Experience
David M. Kroenke has more than 40 years’ experience in the computer industry. He began as a
computer programmer for the U.S. Air Force, working both in Los Angeles and at the Pentagon,
where he developed one of the world’s first DBMS products while part of a team that created a
computer simulation of World War III. That simulation served a key role for strategic weapons
studies during a 10-year period of the Cold War.
From 1973 to 1978, Kroenke taught in the College of Business at Colorado State
University. In 1977, he published the first edition of Database Processing, a significant and
successful textbook that, over 30 years later, you now are reading in its 12th edition. In 1978,
he left Colorado State and joined Boeing Computer Services, where he managed the team
that designed database management components of the IPAD project. After that, he joined
with Steve Mitchell to form Mitchell Publishing and worked as an editor and author, developing
texts, videos, and other educational products and seminars. Mitchell Publishing was
acquired by Random House in 1986. During these years he also worked as an independent
consultant, primarily as a database disaster repairman helping companies recover from
failed database projects.
In 1982, Kroenke was one of the founding directors of the Microrim Corporation. From
1984 to 1987, he served as the Vice President of Product Marketing and Development and
managed the team that created and marketed the DBMS product R:base 5000 as well as other
related products.
For the next 5 years, Kroenke worked independently while he developed a new data modeling
language called the semantic object model. He licensed this technology to the Wall Data
Corporation in 1992 and then served as the Chief Technologist for Wall Data’s SALSA line of
products. He was awarded three software patents on this technology.
Since 1998, Kroenke has continued consulting and writing. His current interests concern
the practical applications of data mining techniques on large organizational databases. An
avid sailor, he wrote Know Your Boat: The Guide