After co-founding the world renowned school Hyper Island (1995) – dubbed ‘the Oxbridge of Digital’ by Campaign Magazine – and digital service design agency Doberman (1998), David spent over 10 years in senior commercial and marketing leadership positions at Vodafone, including five years as Global Brand Director, responsible for Brand Strategy and Manifestation, where he worked on all major M&As and business, brand and culture transformations, opening up markets such as India, Ghana, Qatar, Romania, Czech Republic and South Africa and developing new marketing capabilities, with a focus on digital, in Europe and Australasia.
David was appointed Vice President of Products & Customer Experience for the Russian telecommunications innovator Yota, and was part of the leadership team that created the world’s first native 4G network, successfully branching out into entertainment and media services, banking and connected products (including YotaPhone).
David spent seven years in NatWest Group as Marketing Director, responsible for its House of Brands portfolio, marketing communications, content, media and digital brand experience – and held roles within the group as CMO of Bó and Head of Digital and Customer Innovation for Ulster Bank, looking after all the digital propositions, products and channels across the bank’s customer segments.
Before joining NatWest David worked on Customer Centricity, Digital Marketing Capabilities, Disruptive Innovation, Brand Management, and Digital Business Transformation, on industry projects, corporate accelerators, research initiatives and executive training. Clients included Unilever (Home Care, Personal Care, Refreshments, Global Marketing), TUI, Target (US), Mondelez LatAm (Cadbury-Kraft merger), Raiffeisen Bank Czech Republic, P&G Oral Care US, Grey Advertising Europe, JWT Worldwide, RKCR, DDB, Volcom, Added Value, Sky UK, Viasat / MTG Emerging Markets, Old Mutual, 22Seven and Delvaux.
Board experience include Lunar Mobile (the first youth brand oriented MVNO in Sweden), Länsförsäkringar (one of the biggest insurance and banking companies in Scandinavia), Megafon OSC (the second biggest mobile operator in Russia), D&AD and The Marketing Society of Ireland.
David has an MBA from Trinity College Dublin and has held academic positions at Strelka Institute in Moscow (Research and Programme Director) and Imperial College in London (Co-Director, Centre of Excellence in Customer Centricity). He’s currently a teaching fellow at Trinity Business School.