David As A Speaker

David is available for speaking engagements worldwide. He also regularly chairs or moderates conferences for a wide variety of business, NGO and public sector audiences.

As a sixteen year-old schoolboy, he wowed the Tory Party Conference in the early 1970s. One Yorkshire political correspondent wrote of his "cool and confident delivery." The veteran TV commentator, Robin Day speculated on his future career.

Six years before the rather more famous debut of another Yorkshire schoolboy,William Hague, David Grayson made his first big speech at the 1971 Conservative conference in Brighton, on pollution and environmental challenges. David has long since abandoned active political involvement. From his teens on, however, he has been involved in social and environmental causes, and in enterprise promotion. He ran his first successful , community campaign - to keep his home community of Eckington in Derbyshire when local government was being reformed, as a 16 year-old. He regularly makes 70-80 speeches each year to a wide variety of business, academic, public sector, community and NGO audiences. These range from private briefings for boards / senior management teams of FTSE 100 companies; to MBA and executive managements in business schools around the world; and to NGO conferences.

David is equally at home in boardrooms or front-line community organisations; sharing platforms with captains of industry, international politicians and community activists.

Over the last fifteen years, he has spoken to:

- 3000 entrepreneurs at the inaugural meeting of the Zimbabwean Indigenous Business Development Association
- the UK's Association of Chief Police Officers annual conference
- Society of Local Authority CEOs
- OECD, European Union, UN Global Compact
- Bangalore Young Entrepreneurs Association
- New Zealand Redesigning Resources Colloquy
- Commonwealth Club of California

David has:
- Opened Inaugural conference of African Institute of Corporate Citizenship
- Closed for the first three years, The Conference Board's Global Corporate Citizenship annual conference in New York
- Delivered the "Work in Society" presentation on future trends to more than 300 audiences - Shared platforms with all of the current leaders of the main UK political parties, as well as with business gurus like Rosabeth Moss-Kanter and Charles Handy .

He has spoken at business schools around the world including Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Santa Clara, (USA) Schulich (Toronto), FDC (Brazil), GIBS (South Africa), Macquarie Graduate School of Management and Curtin Business School (Australia), Copenhagen, INSEAD, London, Cranfield, IESE and EADA (Spain). He has also taught in corporate universities and in-company training centres including Unipart U and Lloyds TSB.

David has been variously described as a passionate, inspirational, provocative, visionary speaker on business and society, responsible entrepreneurship, small business, future trends and diversity. Additionally, having chaired a wide variety of business, NGO and public sector bodies, he is also invited to chair or facilitate conferences for business and other audiences, where event-organisers are wanting an independent, competent and experienced moderator.

WHAT OTHERS SAY

"On march 9, David Grayson wowed his audience with his witty demeanour and exceptional insight into corporate social responsiblity" - University of Western Australia Alumni Magazine

'David Grayson has the uniqueness of being able to reduce complex issues to doable actions and in the process, inspire, enthuse and ignite passion, advocacy and action'.
- Eric Peacock CMG DL. - Chairman 4 Less Group Plc & CEO of exemplas ltd & Business link Hertfordshire

"David has a vitality and passion that gets into your soul. He has the ability to give important messages and translate them into easy actions; he inspires all who listen to see where and how they can make a difference in their worlds."

Sue Cheshire
Co-Founder The Academy for Chief Executives

" Since the inception of MAALA , 7 years ago , David Grayson has addressed our audience on three different occasions. We cannot think of a better, more enthusiastic, more structured and clearer presenter than Mr. Grayson. To different audiences, with different backgrounds, David has turned the complicated CSR area into a lively, clear business case.
David is a devoted presenter, who turns a speaking engagement into a life-time commitment. We highly recommend him either as a key-note speaker, a narrator of a discussion or a coordinator of a workshop. "

Talia Aharoni - President -MAALA - Business for Social Responsibility - Israel

"One of the authors that had a big impact on David was Alvin Toffler who wrote "Future Shock" and predicted that we would all have multi-careers. The trouble is that David has always understood that to mean simultaneously rather than sequentially!"

David Irwin
Co-founder Project North East

"Whatever the future may hold, David will have a hold on the future"

Adrian Hodges
Co-Author

"David is an exceptional communicator able to engage his audience with new thinking, inspirational stories, and passionate debate. Whether you are in the business, public or voluntary sectors, if you are interested in responsible entrepreneurship David will light your fire with his knowledge, enthusiasm, humility and sheer energy for helping individuals and organizations to realize their potential"

Paul Davidson, founder CEO, Bolton Business Ventures

"David has a powerful message and puts it across very well. He boosts his credibility with that seemingly endless stream of interesting examples and related stories."

- Bryce Whitcher - Managing Director - Industrial - Beca - New Zealand

"David Grayson has a real passion for his subject, and I feel sure that those at the event, like me, would buy into his message through future action."

- Graham Roberts, Pacific Net, New Zealand

"Many thanks for the invite to hear David last night. A great evening,congrats! Thought his presentation was outstanding."

- Andrew Davidson, Lighthouse Ventures, New Zealand

"Please pass on my thanks to Simon and the rest of the Renton James crew for a wonderful evening. It was a fabulous presentation from David - really inspirational. Thank you again for the invitation and the opportunity to listen to David."

- Lynley.Kirk-Smith Vodafone New Zealand

"It was an honour for APAN - Portuguese Advertising Association, to have your experience and knowledge, shared at our dinner on 14th July. Our objective is to use these dinners as top managers forums for discussions on best practices / worries sessions between our members and their guests. All the presents, with no exception, were unanimous about the interest of this subject, as well as about the interest of your presentation and the way you've approached this issue. Thank you once again, for being with us and allowing us to have a serious understanding of Corporate Social Opportunity. We are sure about the success of your new book."

- M. Barata Simões and Manuela Botelho - apan-associação portuguesa de anunciantes (Advertising Association of Portugal)

Click here for speaker bios.