INSPIRING
LEADERS

“David is excellent at knowing what makes organisations tick. His deep insight on how leaders can transform a culture is based on a combination of a natural sense for the soul of an organisation blended with an ability to apply best practice from around the world. He has been very helpful to me as I have plotted and delivered the growth of our business in a fast-changing world.”

“I have known and worked with David for well over a decade and have always found him to be thoughtful, articulate and insightful. His warm and collaborative style means he is a pleasure to work with and I have appreciated his wise counsel and advice over many years.”

“David listens, guides and follows up. He brings extensive experience of organisational transformations in complex settings to brighten the path and lighten the load. His prompts and his questions foster new perspectives, open new conversations and enrich collaborations. His ability to quickly grasp team dynamics and his agility across styles of influence foster fast progress. Then he sticks with you, nudging as needed to get you to your objectives.

Adept with both teams and leaders, he is at his best when together they are open to let him shepherd. At LBS, our leadership and I have very much appreciated his support in articulating our strategy. He remains a valuable resource as we navigate the Covid-19 pandemic.”

“I worked closely with David for nine years. During that time he coached me personally to help build my profile and support my own personal development. He brought together a group from across a range of disciplines, to develop a high performing team with strong leadership, a clear vision, effective ways of working and profitable growth. He also worked alongside me on projects, including work designing aspects of reforms in the NHS to support the provision of essential services and incentives to promote efficient, high quality care.

David is very straightforward to work with. He helped me find clarity about my own objectives, with advice on techniques to meet them, constant support and advice on how to navigate complex organisations and influence. He was always present and a determined supporter, enabling me to succeed. David uses these same techniques — clear objectives, building a sense of purpose, supporting individuals to be their best — when building and leading teams.”

“I have known and worked with David for over 20 years and consider him a valued colleague, adviser and friend. He is able to blend an unrivalled strategic understanding of how markets and companies work and function at a time of huge complexity and disruption — with real insight into how executives can best think, feel and act within this changing work environment — up to the most senior levels in industry.

This is a rare combination in its own right — but he is also a kind, calm, fun, engaging and rewarding person to work with — and who I always feel refreshed and energised from spending time with.”

“David is quite simply brilliant and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend that you work with him. He and I have worked together in a number of roles throughout my career. Firstly, in my role as Chief Economist and Policy Transformation Director at Monitor (now NHS Improvement) and latterly as my delivery partner for the PR14 price review in my role as Chief Regulation Officer at Ofwat. These roles involved organisational transformation as well as transformation with the NHS and the water and waste water Sectors in England and Wales. In addition to delivering amazing programmes of change that made a real difference to people, David also helped me as a leader to grow considerably — both at the time and in taking the learning from working together into my current role in fintech in the commercial sector.

David has an amazing intellect and is able to grapple with the most complex problems. His style is extremely inclusive and he always works hard to ensure that even when a decision is challenging for an organisation that there is collective buy-in to ensure that it can last the distance. David would make an amazing addition to any board. In all board situations at Ofwat he demonstrated high integrity, respect for everyone’s perspectives, a drive for delivery and real emotional intelligence in action. David was equally as comfortable when helping the most junior members of the team feel both engaged and energised in their roles as part of the change process. The ability to span this spectrum from the boardroom to junior analysts is unusual and so valuable if you want to deliver lasting change. David was also pivotal in thinking about the communication of change to the sectors and how we created a ‘brand’ to deliver this.”

“David’s high emotional intelligence means he is able to adapt to different organisational cultures to provide leaders with exceptional advice on enabling high performance with strategic clarity. I have enjoyed working with him and have found his support very useful.”

“I had the pleasure of working with David for 12 months. I wanted to work with somebody to help me understand myself better and figure out what I needed to do to improve my chances of securing C-suite positions. I selected David because of his leadership experience and expertise, and because we clicked when we spoke.

We started with self-exploration and diagnostics and then moved into deeper work, which covered: what I feel I am missing and why; what am I looking for; leadership mindsets, practices and styles; options under specific and challenging situations. I particularly enjoyed — even if it was hard work — an exercise that involved connecting with my well-wishers (professionally and personally), who gave me an honest and unbiased take on what and who I am.

The sessions were free flowing, enabled through sharing context and adding some structure. I shared my points, experiences, concerns, and open questions, and quandaries. Through David’s style of discussion, questioning and sharing, we were easily able to move from a helicopter view of strategic thinking to current operational issues. His perspectives connected with me immediately given they were based on examples from his own experience and with the other C-suite executives. I also appreciated a lot the different readings that supplemented the topics we covered in our sessions.

By the end of the work, I was clear on my immediate and medium term plans. Interestingly, I also reflected on whether another C-suite role was really what I was looking for, given my values and interests.

I strongly recommend David to any current and future C-suite executives wanting to improve their understanding of leadership and strategy.”

“David has coached me to consider and nurture many skills more intentionally. I have enjoyed and benefited from practising them all. The ones I prize the most are the art of asking good questions of those around me, and communicating with a warmness, a relevance, and clarity. The role David plays as strategist, catalyst and coach helped me shift from a leader in the business to CEO and really understand the impact I can, and should, have. More broadly, he supported our organisation through the development of strategy and the culture we want to have and need to have in support of the growth trajectory inlumi is on.

Leading an organisation is complex. David provides stimuli and perspective that are practical and useful whilst leaving your hands, as CEO, firmly on the steering wheel. I found David’s considered questioning helped me find both the fun and the seriousness of my role and the confidence to play it. That was very important to me personally.”