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David works with board members and senior executives to develop winning strategies and drive step-change improvements in operating and financial performance. He has more than 30 years of deep industry experience as an executive and a consultant, with a consistent record of achieving dramatic increases in cash flow, profitability, and shareholder value.
David is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He is an Advisory Board Member of Oxford University’s Enacting Purpose Initiative (“EPI”), a global group of leading members of large corporate Boards of Directors aimed at defining the role of “purpose” in corporate governance. David is also an Advisory Board Member of The Financial Times’ Outstanding Directors Exchange (“ODX”), where he advises The Financial Times on nominations and selections for Outstanding Directors of the Year.
Previously, David served on the Board of Directors of Encore Corporation. David has been cited by CEO Magazine as a leading investment thinker and is a frequent contributor to media outlets including The Financial Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg TV, National Public Radio, Fortune Magazine, and The New York Times, among others. David holds an MBA from Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he has also served as a guest lecturer to the Executive MBA program.
Key engagements and career highlights:
- Transformed an underperforming division of a $40-billion global leader in the food and beverage sector. Increased operating profit 600 bps, with improvements across the business’s commercial operations, supply chain, and organization structure.
- Delivered a sustained +$135 million in EBITDA for a $4-billion private equity-owned manufacturer of plastic products. Increased sales productivity, optimized pricing, streamlined operations, enhanced organizational effectiveness, and integrated a key acquisition.
- Helped a $6-billion global manufacturer of consumer and industrial products, address an activist investor’s challenge to increase profitability and value. Identified $290 million in profit opportunities. Delivered results ahead of schedule. In <12 months, the company’s share price increased 50%, outpacing competitors and creating >$3 billion in value.
- Achieved a sustained 500-basis-point increase in gross margins and a share price increase of two times relative to the S&P 500 for a leading multinational branded consumer company.
- Delivered a $115 million increase in annual operating income for a multibillion-dollar global services firm, transforming the company from declining sales and share to growing sales and share; stock price went from underperforming to dramatically outperforming the S&P 500.
