Full
DAVID GRAYSON CBE:
Director, Business in the Community
Principal: BLU (Business Link corporate university)
Non-exec board member: Strategic Rail Authority

David Grayson is a director of Business in the Community (BITC). BITC is a unique movement of over 700 of the UK's top companies, committed to improving their positive impact on society. He joined BITC in 1987 and has held a number of key positions in the organisation, including joint Managing Director, and MD of the Business Strategy Group. He chaired Taskforce 2002 on business support for the voluntary and community sectors.
He speaks and writes regularly on "Responsible Business" "Corporate Citizenship" and "Global Trends". The Financial Times has described him as:
"one of the UK's most respected voices on business social responsibility".

Since December 2001 he has alsp been the part-time Principal of the BLU - the world's first, virtual corporate university for small business development professionals. The BLU has been established by the UK Government's Small Business Service and the Business Link operators.

Before joining BITC in 1987, he was first joint managing director of the Prince's Youth Business Trust, and co-founder/director of Project North East - Britain's oldest surviving and most successful local enterprise agency - set up in Newcastle in 1980. More recently, he has helped Project North East to expand the long-established Shell Livewire youth enterprise programme to other Shell operating companies internationally.

He was the Chairman of the Business Links Accreditation Advisory Board, on behalf of the British Government; and first Chairman of the Business Link Network Company. He also chaired the original Government Taskforce which set up the national network of Business Links, to help small firms. He chaired the external advisory group for the Durham University Business School Small Business Foresight Programme; and was a member of the national advisory forum for the Foundation for SME Development at Durham University.

He is a non-executive director of the Strategic Rail Authority, where he has a particular interest in access for disabled passengers.

David Grayson was chairman of the UK's National Disability Council from 1996 to 2000; and a member of the Government's Disability Rights Taskforce, which reported in December 1999. He chaired the IT and Disability Alliance sponsored by The Post Office. He is a patron of the disability charity: Scope and is an ambassador for the National AIDS Trust.

He was a Member of the Microsoft Small Business Taskforce; and of the Committee of Inquiry into a New Vision for Business established by Anita Roddick of The Body Shop and seven other leading corporate CEOs; which reported in November 1999.

He is a member of the editorial advisory boards of " The Corporate Citizenship Briefing" in the UK, and of "Corporate Philanthropy Report" in the USA; and has been a member of the National Advisory Forum for Common Purpose since Common Purpose began in 1990. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the RSA e-forum for the RSA Lecture Programme.

He has Masters degrees from Cambridge and Brussels Universities; and holds an MBA from Newcastle University. He is a regular lecturer at business schools in the UK and internationally, is a Visiting Fellow of the Durham University Business School and the Imperial School of Management, London; and a Visiting Professor at the London Guildhall University. He has been a temporary, Visiting Fellow at Stanford and Wharton Business Schools in the USA. He began his business life in marketing management with Procter and Gamble in 1978.

He has contributed chapters to several books including "What if?." By Gordon Brown MP et al (2000); "Mastering Enterprise" (Financial Times / Pitman- 1997 and new edition: "Mastering Entrepreneurship" 2000); and The Financial Times Handbook of Management. He co-authored (with Adrian Hodges of the International Business Leaders Forum): "Everybody's Business: Managing Risks and Opportunities in to-day's Global Society" - published by Dorling Kindersley and The Financial Times in Nov 2001. His next book: "Corporate Social Opportunity" will be published by Greenleaf in February 2004.

He is an Education Action Zone Governor of a Lambeth comprehensive.

Hobbies include travel and scuba diving. He is happiest in, on or - preferably - under water in hot climates.

David Grayson was awarded an OBE in 1994 for his services to industry; and the CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 1999 for services to disability.