David Heinemeier Hansson

David Heinemeier Hansson, also known by his initials DHH, is a Danish programmer, writer, entrepreneur, and racing driver. He is the creator of Ruby on Rails, a web framework written in Ruby. He also created Omarchy, a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux catered towards developers. He is also a partner and chief technology officer at the web-based software development firm 37signals.

Hansson co-wrote Agile Web Development with Rails with Dave Thomas in 2005 as part of The Facets of Ruby Series. He also co-wrote Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster Easier Way to build a Web Application , Rework , Remote: Office Not Required , and It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work with Jason Fried.

Programming career Hansson learned PHP in high school while creating gaming review sites. Although he initially did not intend to become a programmer, his interest in expanding his sites' features led him to pursue programming professionally. After attracting the attention of Jason Fried by offering him help with PHP coding, Hansson was hired by Fried to build a web-based project management tool, which ultimately became 37signals' Basecamp software as a service product. To aid the development process, Hansson used the then-relatively obscure Ruby programming language to develop a custom web framework. He released the framework separately from the project management tool in 2004 as the open source project Ruby on Rails. In 2005, Hansson was recognized by Google and O'Reilly with the "Hacker of the Year" award for his creation of Ruby on Rails. After graduating from the Copenhagen Business School and receiving his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Business Administration, Hansson moved from Denmark to Chicago, Illinois, U.S. in November 2005.

Racing career

Heinemeier Hansson lists photography and race car driving amongst his many hobbies. He took part in the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for OAK Racing. He also drove a Morgan-Nissan P2 car for Conquest Racing in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), winning two races in the season. Heinemeier Hansson joined OAK Racing full-time in 2013, taking five second-place finishes to finish second in the Trophy for LMP2 Drivers. During the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans post-race technical checks, certain irregularities were detected on the Vaillante Rebellion team's No. 13 Oreca 07-Gibson, resulting in the car's disqualification.

In July 2010, it was revealed that Heinemeier Hansson was the person that had commissioned the one-off Pagani Zonda HH supercar. He also commissioned the Koenigsegg Agera HH, which was sold in 2022 to Houston Crosta, a YouTube video creator in Las Vegas. It has now been sold to car spotting YouTuber, TheStradman. Heinemeier Hansson also purchased an Aston Martin Valkyrie.

24 Hours of Le Mans results Heinemeier Hansson's No. 22 car at the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps OAK Racing Bas Leinders Maxime Martin Morgan LMP2-Nissan LMP2 341 14th 7th OAK Racing Olivier Pla Alex Brundle Morgan LMP2-Nissan LMP2 328 8th 2nd Aston Martin Racing Kristian Poulsen Nicki Thiim Aston Martin Vantage GTE GTEAm 334 17th 1st Extreme Speed Motorsports Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel Ligier JS P2-Honda LMP2 329 28th 10th Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Khaled Al Qubaisi Patrick Long Porsche 911 RSR GTEAm 330 28th 3rd Vaillante Rebellion Nelson Piquet Jr. Mathias Beche Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 364 DSQ DSQ Jackie Chan DC Racing Ricky Taylor Côme Ledogar Ligier JS P217-Gibson LMP2 195 DNF DNF Jackie Chan DC Racing Ricky Taylor Jordan King Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 199 DNF DNF Inter Europol Competition Pietro Fittipaldi Fabio Scherer Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 364 18th 14th Jota Sport Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 316 24th 13th Nielsen Racing Fabio Scherer Kyffin Simpson Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 291 25th 11th United Autosports Pietro Fittipaldi Renger van der Zande Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 364 24th 7th Nielsen Racing Jack Doohan Edward Pearson Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 341 32nd 18th

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results † As Heinemeier Hansson was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete European Le Mans Series results (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points 2011 nowrap| Lotus Jetalliance nowrap| GTE Pro nowrap| Lotus Evora GTE nowrap| Toyota-Cosworth 4.0 L V6 CAS SPA IMO

EST NC 0 2013 nowrap| Jota Sport LMP2 nowrap| Zytek Z11SN nowrap| Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 SIL

RBR HUN LEC 17th 10 2019 nowrap| Team Project 1 LMGTE nowrap| Porsche 911 RSR nowrap| Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 LEC MNZ

SIL SPA ALG 17th 10 2022 nowrap| Inter Europol Competition LMP2 nowrap| Oreca 07 nowrap| Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8

10th 32 2024 nowrap| Nielsen Racing LMP2 nowrap| Oreca 07 nowrap| Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8

24th 0

2015 nowrap| Tequila Patrón ESM P nowrap| HPD ARX-04b HPD ARX-03b nowrap| Honda HR28TT 2.8 L V6 Turbo

LBH LS DET S6H MSP ELK COA PET 21st 45 2016 nowrap| Starworks Motorsport PC nowrap| Oreca FLM09 nowrap| Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 DAY

LBH LGA DET WGL MOS LIM ELK COA

20th 57 2018 nowrap| 3GT Racing GTD nowrap| Lexus RC F GT3 nowrap| Lexus 5.0 L V8

LIM

11th 213 2020 nowrap| Tower Motorsport by Starworks LMP2 nowrap| Oreca 07 nowrap| Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8

SEB ELK ATL PET LGA

18th 32 2025 nowrap| Era Motorsport LMP2 nowrap| Oreca 07 nowrap| Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8

MOS ELK

24th 1362 2026 nowrap| TDS Racing LMP2 nowrap| Oreca 07 nowrap| Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8

12th* 216*

2006: Accepted the Jolt Award of product excellence for Rails 1.0.

Politics In 2025, Hansson published a blog post expressing support for far-right British activist Tommy Robinson and the 2025 British anti-immigration protests. In response, some members of the Ruby on Rails community called for his removal from project governance.

Hansson published another blog post in July of 2026 comparing the Romani population of Copenhagen to Denmark's struggles with its wolf population growth, stating that "When wolves get out of control, you shoot them. When gypsies take over public spaces, you deport them." Anil Dash and Rebecca Bailey expressed criticism of Hansson's post, decrying its "dehumanizing rhetoric" against the Romani people. When it was announced that 1Password would contribute $300,000 towards Hansson's new side project, Omarchy, Scott Jennings and Andrew Lilley Brinker shared further condemnation of Hansson and his projects, calling for a boycott of 1Password.

Written works Agile Web Development with Rails 5 (Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2016) (with Sam Ruby and Dave Thomas) Rework It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work Remote: Office Not Required The Rails Doctrine