David has led £multi-billion infrastructure and technology programmes in the UK and internationally, across both the private and public sectors. His expertise spans rail, water supply, commercial buildings, highways and power, gained at executive director and Board level.
Born in London, David went to secondary school in Gloucester and obtained degrees in engineering from Coventry and Imperial College then initially taught Mathematics in east London before working on transportation and water supply projects across UK and West Africa.
Thereafter he was recruited as Project Manager for the Docklands Light Railway which introduced him to high-technology train control systems and was then asked to join the Jubilee Line Extension where he led delivery and integration of the programme into operation in time for the politically critical millennium celebrations.
In 2003 he held the position in Government as an executive Director of the Strategic Rail Authority leading £3.5Billion cross-industry programmes and was the UK representative on the European Rail Agency, as well as being a non-executive director (or NED) of the Rail Safety and Standards Board.
For eleven years, from 2005, he was at London Underground firstly as Director of Engineering then Capital Programmes, leading delivery into operation of the £10Billion tube upgrade plan (at that time the largest in the tube’s history) through a variety of public private partnerships (or PPP) and in-house arrangements.
His most recent executive position, from 2016 to19, was Managing Director of the UK’s Digital Railway, leading the rail industry parties on the multi £Billion replacement of analogue technology with digital systems. In 2019 David retired and moved into non- executive roles. He currently sits as a NED on the boards of Thames Water and HPC.
His professional memberships and awards include the following: Chartered Engineer; Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers; Fellow of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers; Hon Fellow of the Association for Project Management; and Fellowship to the City and Guilds Institute; UK Project Manager of the Year (1996); President of the International Organisation of Metro Railways (2007); a national honour the CBE (2014); Leader of the Year in the Manufacturing and Infrastructure section of the Black British Business Awards (2014); President of the Association for Project Management (2015-19); and listed in the 100 most influential BAME leaders in tech, as featured in the Financial Times (2019).