While working at General Electric as a Mechanical Design Engineer, Mr. Hutnyak was involved in the design and development of the GE776, GE787 and GE788 wheelmotors. As GE's Resident Engineer at Palabora, in South Africa, he worked with the mine and the local GE service shop to improve wheelmotor and component service lives. After leaving GE, Dave went to work for Palabora, and helped to improve their trolley system.

Dave joined the team at Barrick Goldstrike as their Chief Mechanical Engineer. While there, he worked with Bechtel to complete conceptual and pre-feasibility studies, as well as the final economic study for Trolley Assist. After the project was approved, Mr. Hutnyak was appointed as Project Manager for the design, installation, and commissioning of the system.

After commissioning, actual financial benefits resulting from trolley were compared with what was projected in the feasibility study. When deficiencies were identified, a plan of action was devised to improve those shortcomings. Subsequent investigations were conducted to evaluate the potential for trolley on new, larger trucks, including those with AC drive systems.

Since leaving Barrick to work as an independent consultant, Dave has worked on several trolley studies for various mining companies.