Long time Ruby developer, trainer, author, speaker, and community event organizer David A. Black is a Lead Developer at the New York-based consultancy Cyrus Innovation, which he joined in 2009.

David speaks and keynotes frequently at technical conferences and user groups. His book The Well-Grounded Rubyist (Manning Publications, 2009) is among the most highly regarded books on Ruby. David was one of the founders, and for many years a director, of Ruby Central, Inc., the parent organization of the official international Ruby and Ruby on Rails conferences. He is also a professionally trained cellist, and holds a Ph.D. in Cinema Studies from New York University.