Today word got out that a guy named Dan Dodge announced his resignation from QNX, a subsidiary of BlackBerry. Many won’t have heard of him, his isn’t a household name like those of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Ironically, he’s been compared to both over the years. QNX has been described as the Apple of embedded software. And Dan with his co-founder, Gord Bell, were developing the first generation of QNX around the same time that Bill Gates was creating DOS.

Although the tech community is full of people who care about their personal brands and recognition, Dan isn’t one of them, much to the chagrin of various PR teams over the years. It’s sad really; because Dan is uniquely intelligent, passionate, charismatic, honest and kind. If you ever get a chance to hear him do a speech or presentation, don’t miss it.

He was part of building a company that felt more like family than corporation. He believed in hiring people for their potential – measuring passion and enthusiasm over pedigree and experience. Not surprisingly, the turnover at QNX has been extremely low over the years. The quality of the work, the ability to make a difference, and to trust that the leadership has your back makes for an awesome work environment. As a result, QNX has not only survived, but thrived over the years, in some truly challenging situations.

Like its leader’s, the QNX brand is not broadly known outside of certain tech circles. The company is 35 years old and its product - also known as QNX - is powering some of the world’s most mission critical systems; everything from cars to robots to high end networking equipment to casino gaming machines to secure smart phones to train control systems and medical equipment. The QNX customer base reads like the Fortune 500 and QNX is the software behind some of the world’s greatest industrial and consumer brands.

To tell the stories of Dan’s kindness, generosity and loyalty to his employees is impossible. The stories are too numerous and too personal to be recounted here. But most of us have been touched in some way, even if it was as mundane as enjoying company parties that he personally funded in times when budgets were tight at our parent company.

Dan’s legacy to technology for embedded systems will live on in the vast number of software engineers he’s mentored over the years, whether they were employees, customers, or technical partners. Anyone who had a chance to talk tech with Dan will remember it, albeit not always fondly. He could be hard in technical debate, but he always acknowledged the better answer. He didn’t have to be right. There is nothing arrogant about this man except perhaps his pursuit for the best technical answer to any problem.

He is the kind of guy who would spend ages talking to a university student who stopped by the booth at a tradeshow while handlers like me circled, trying to interrupt politely and move him on to the business at hand.

I am sad that he’s leaving the company he built and protected for so long, but I’m happy for him because sometimes its just time to go. I can’t wait to see what he does next - whatever it is, it will be about building great technology. He is a remarkable man and I like to think that his work as an operating system architect and visionary will be remembered in the computer annals of the future. Mostly I just feel fortunate that I had the chance to work with him and learn from him for such a long time.

Go, Dan, and “may the force be with you" :-)