David graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Jurisprudence in 1973. He then spent five years in the Army. In 1978, he joined Warburg Investment Management, becoming a Director in l982. He became an Executive Director of S. G Warburg & Co Ltd in l984. Having spent eight years as a UK pension fund manager and latterly head of UK institutional sales, he moved to run Warburg Investment Management’s Private Client business in 1986.
He was a founding director of Mercury Asset Management Group plc on its flotation in 1987, becoming a Deputy Chairman of its main operating subsidiary, Mercury Asset Management plc, in 1990. From then, until Mercury Asset Management was taken over by Merrill Lynch in 1997, he headed up the Private Investors Group which included the private client, charities, unit trust, personal pensions and investment trust businesses. He was also on the board of Mercury Asset Management’s Channel Islands and Swiss subsidiaries.
Following the takeover, he was responsible for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers’ private client investment management business globally sitting on the MLIM Executive Management Committee. He left Merrill Lynch in 2002.
In 2003, he was one of the founding partners of Thurleigh Investment Managers LLP, of which he is Chairman.
David is also chairman of the Advisory Board of the Armed Forces Common Investment Fund, a trustee of the Nuffield Trust for the Forces of the Crown, the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, the Winchester College 1945 War Memorial Fund, and 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards Museum. He is also a director of Invesco Perpetual Select Trust Plc, and the Forces Pension Society Investment Company.
He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.