A public policy entrepreneur, open government activist and negotiation expert David is retained by several governments to advise on open government and open data, works with two spin-offs of the Harvard Negotiation Project and advises businesses on open source strategies and community management.
Public Policy Entrepreneur
David writes on open innovation, public policy, public service sector renewal, open source and network systems. He posts multiple times a week on his blog, publishes regularly in various forums including the Globe and Mail website, the Toronto Star, and written numerous chapters such as his piece in the O’Reilly Media book on Open Government. He is also frequently invited to speak on these issues, as well as on open government, policy making, negotiation and strategy, to executives, policymakers, and students. You can find a list of David’s past and upcoming keynotes and speeches here.
In addition to his writing, consulting and advocacy, some of David favourite recent volunteers activities include:
- 2010 Program Director for the Code for America Institute
- Advisory Board member for CivicCommons,
- Vision Vancouver executive member (a municipal political party)
- The Board of Keeping the Door Open
- Co-founded International Open Data Day and the International OpenData Hackathon
- The Advisory Committee for McKinsey’s Big Data in the Social Sector research group
- The Regional Strategic Resource Centre Volunteer Advisory Board at MaRS in Toronto
- Sponsor and adviser of the Apps 4 Climate Action competition,
- The International Reference Group of Australia’s Government 2.0 Taskforce,
- The Steering Committee of the Environics Institute Urban Aboriginal People’s Survey; and
- The advisory board of Canada’s World
Open Activist
David advises the Mayor of Vancouver on Open Government and Open Data and helped draft the Open Motion. David now advises a number of government at the local, provincial/state, national and international levels on open data and open government, helping them craft strategies as well as execute implementation plans.
In addition to working with politicians and government officials, David engages programmers and citizens at the local and national level to make use of, and advocate for, more open and transparent government. He frequently writes and is invited to speak on how open source methodologies and open data can help make government more effective and efficient.
Negotiator
As a negotiation consultant David advises companies, non-profits and advocacy groups on their critical negotiations. He has developed and helped implement collaborative strategies for open source communities and Fortune 500 companies as they seek to maximize the value they generate with community members, partners, alliance members, customers, and suppliers. His work has taken him across North America and around the world in a range of industries including financial services, health-care, information technology, and the energy sector.
He served as a negotiation advisor to a coalition of environmental government organizations during almost 2 years of negotiations with the Forestry Products Association of Canada (FPAC). This negotiation produced the groundbreaking Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement. Since the agreement’s signing David serve as a mediator and facilitator on critical implementation committees. More recently he trained all of Greenpeace Internationals climate change activists in America, Europe and Asia.
Citizen
David lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in history at Queen’s University and a Master’s of International Relations at Oxford. He is a former Sauvé Scholar at McGill University and an Action Canada Fellow.