David read law at Kings College London and was called to the Bar (Barrister) as a Blackstone Exhibitor before joining the merchant bank Guinness, Mahon & Co.
He was one of the original shareholders of Satellite Television plc ('SATV'), renamed SKY following the (1983) sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. David continued running SKY and was responsible for establishing SKY's production company and for the first VPL and Pan-European PRS agreements, as well as the conception of Eurosport and the first ever World Music Video Awards. In late 1986 he left SKY to found Parallel Media Group ('PMG') in 1987.
In 1998 PMG formed a joint venture with NBC establishing CNBC Sports International Limited, broadcast in Europe and Asia. In 2004 PMG sold its shareholding to NBC.
David is a respected and major force in the global sports marketing industry having strong personal relationships with sporting federations, proven marketing skills and wide-ranging contacts.
David revolutionised the sports marketing and sponsorship strategies of some of the world's leading sporting Federations and global brands. David took golf's European Tour to South Africa and Asia (including the first at Mission Hills), re-launched the World Cup of Golf (with Five Tours), he has worked with World Nordic Ski Championship, Davis Cup, the first Jordan Formula One team, Ladies European Golf Tour, English and Italian Rugby Unions, and created the Tour of China cycling race. Additionally, David has advised Pepsi UK music, Heineken and Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, he also acted as Omega's sponsorship agency, launched the Ballantine's Championship in Korea for Pernod Ricard and negotiated UBS's title sponsorship of the Hong Kong Open. David created the pan-European Buckler Basketball Challenge and a sports tourism strategy for South Africa at the end of apartheid, and many others.
David's reputation as a leading marketer and entrepreneur in the Asian marketplace led to a joint venture with Live Nation forming Live Nation Marketing Partnership Asia Limited (LNMPA). LNMPA raised funding for Tokyo's annual Electronic Daisy Carnival festival, created a pan-Asian joint venture with Google/YouTube and negotiated pan regional sponsorship relationships with multinational brands across the region.
In 2016, David invested in Brick Live Group becoming its Chairman and majority shareholder. BRICKLIVE, is an interactive event that is staged in over 20 cities worldwide. In 2017, David reversed Brick Live Group and its sister company Parallel Live Group into Live Company Group plc (LVCG), which is admitted to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
As a passionate art collector, David founded the Eye Programme in 2009 with an aim to develop arts infrastructure to support and help artists develop their careers in territories where this is lacking. Projects include Korean Eye (2009 and 2012), Indonesian Eye (2011), Hong Kong Eye (2013), Malaysian Eye (2014), Singapore Eye (2015), Thailand Eye (2016), Vietnam Eye (2017) and Korean Eye (2020) marking the programme's 10th anniversary. In 2014 the Eye Programme launched annual Eye Awards, honouring emerging artists. START Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery launched (2014) to huge acclaim showcasing emerging artists and galleries from around the world. START Doha in collaboration with The New York Times for the Art for Tomorrow conference took place in 2017. In 2018 David invested in the development of an art-centric digital platform; START.art. Despite COVID-19 the seventh edition of START Art Fair took place as planned in-person October 2020 at Saatchi Gallery. June 2021 will see START.art soft-launch and the eighth edition of the physical fair will take place at Saatchi Gallery October 2021.