Former newspaper systems industry leader Jo Ann Froelich has died following a long battle with cancer.

She died earlier this week from inoperable brain cancer, just a few days after her 68th birthday on June 21.

In a 32-year career with the US industry's top companies, she was chief operating officer of DTI - with which she worked for 19 years - chief executive of Atex, and US president of EidosMedia. She had also worked as global business manager of Brainworks, and latterly as executive director of John Juliano's JJCS consulting and software development business.

Juliano, who had worked with Werner Elhauge in the 1990s to bring Saxotech - now, with DTI, part of Newscycle Solutions - to the US market, told GXpress when JoAnn Froelich joined him in JJCS in 2012, "our ties to the companies are significant".

He had visited her in Salt Lake City last week when it was clear that she had only days to live, flying down from the Canadian west coast, where he is sailing a small yacht to Alaska. He was out of internet contact this morning, but texted GXpress with the news of her death.

Industry colleagues speak of the sad loss of "a lovely lady".

"Even though we were working for competing companies, she was always very pleasant and delighted in having a chat about the state of the nation," said former DTI Australia managing director David Page.

Elsewhere, Pongrass Publishing founder Leslie Pongrass praised her efforts in bring a coalition of European companies together within DTI. The two companies had worked together on a number of projects, but "even when we were direct competitors, she was still as gracious as ever," he says.

A celebration of her life is being held on Saturday, July 2 in Spanish Fork, Utah. No traditional funeral is planned: "She hated funerals," her daughter Sheri Jones posted on Facebook.