David co-founded the European Mentoring Centre and helped to steer its evolution into the European Mentoring and Coaching Council – the coordinating body for professional practice in this area in Europe. He has been chair of both the UK and European research committees of the EMCC and is now a lifetime ambassador for the EMCC.

He lectures on coaching and mentoring at universities and conferences around the world. He led the research team that created the International Standards for Mentoring Programmes in Employment (ISMPE) and is the ISMPE’s current chair.

David has coached and consulted widely in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He originally brought the concept of structured mentoring to Europe in the late 1970's and has developed an international reputation for his mentoring programme design and support, helping hundreds of companies, voluntary bodies and government agencies around the world create sustainable mentoring programmes.

David has an exceptionally strong research background, which underpins his work. He is the author or co-author of 60 books, of which 20 relate specifically to coaching and mentoring and hundreds of articles.

One of the recent fruits of his research has been the Talent Wave, a radical rethink of HR practice in talent management and succession planning. Another is a re-evaluation of the role of goals in coaching and mentoring.