Bio

David is a design and technology innovator and entrepreneur. After graduating with a Bachelor of Design in 1994 David travelled under scholarship to San Francisco, New York and London - visiting the pioneers of the World Wide Web. In 1996 at the age of 23, David founded DT (now AKQA Australia & NZ). Today DT enjoys annual turnover of $50m+, and is one of Australia's largest and most awarded digital innovation agencies. DT employees 250+ people across Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and Auckland. WPP acquired DT in 2010. In 2017 DT agreed to become the Asia Pacific arm of leading global digital innovation agency network, AKQA. In the early 2000’s David also co-founded leading brand design company Threefold (now Designworks Melbourne) and cloud based hosting company Haylix. In 2010 David moved to Chairman at DT, and began a new role as STW's first Chief Digital Officer. David developed STW's digital growth strategy and advised the executive, board and 75 operating companies. David sourced and negotiated a number of successful acquisitions during this period. Seeing a need for radically new education model, David founded Republica Education with Ryan Trainor in 2013. David drew upon on his digital, brand and industry expertise to develop Republica into a high quality provider, focused on education for the jobs of the future. David exited the business in 2015 after a 2 year establishment phase. in 2015 David moved with his family to Byron Bay, advising and investing in a number businesses, development projects and charitable organisations. In 2016 David conceived and created Fliteboard http://Fliteboard.com - an award winning electric hydrofoiling surfboard. Fliteboard now has offices in Australia, Europe and the USA, supporting thousands of customers across over 80 countries.