David’s commitment to understanding businesses and to helping them improve and grow has been at the heart of his career as an investor, regulator and advisor.
He has recently taken on the role of interim Chief Executive and Accountable Officer of WICS.
David is playing an important role in the current review of charges (2021-27) by managing key elements of the process, one that is under peer review by the OECD. In particular, David is collaborating with Scottish Water as it thinks strategically about the dual challenges of replacing its ageing infrastructure and meeting a 2040 net-zero emissions target.
He is also working with Scottish Water, and industry experts, to understand the long-term costs of providing Scottish Water’s service, where to prioritise investment, and how to appraise investment projects in the future. The result of this work will be a roadmap for how Scottish Water will transform the way in which it manages its infrastructure.
David previously helped shape Scottish Water’s £2.5bn investment programme, by undertaking an efficiency analysis of the programme, as part of his work in the run up to the 2010-15 review of charges.
David enjoys sharing good practice and lessons learned with stakeholders, colleagues, and peer regulators. He also contributes to WICS’s work in support of the Scottish Government’s Hydro Nation initiative, which included spending a period with the multi-utility regulator ESCOSA in Adelaide, Australia. David is highly committed to developing other individuals and acts as a coach and mentor for some of our newer recruits.
In addition to his regulatory experience David has worked as an equity analyst at a privately-owned asset management boutique with c$1bn of assets under management. Here he gained extensive experience analysing the business model and strategy of publicly listed companies in diverse sectors around the world.
David is a CFA Charterholder. He earned a first-class bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Strathclyde and an Executive MBA (with distinction) at the London Business School.