David founded The Environment Bank Ltd (EBL) in 2006, stepping down as Chairman in May 2024. He introduced the concept of compensation via biodiversity offsetting and conservation banking into the UK in 2007 in order to achieve net gains in biodiversity from all development. Some 12 years later (March 2019), after his lobbying, provision of evidence, creation of the delivery model through on-the-ground establishment of new wildlife habitat paid for by development purchases of 'conservation credits', the Government announced that this approach would be mandated as a requirement of the planning and development control system. The Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) concept was mandated in late 2021 in the Environment Act and implemented in February 2024.David is also a Board Trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, previously Chair of the conservation charity Plantlife International, Chair of the Northern Upland Nature Partnership comprising Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Parks and Nidderdale, North Pennines and Forest of Bowland National Landscapes (formerly Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty). He is a Commissioner on the independent Food Farming and Countryside Commission. Previously Deputy Chair of Natural England, the governments statutory advisers on natural heritage, and previously a member of the Board of the UK government’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the government’s Ecosystem Markets Taskforce.David has a doctorate in ecology from the University of Oxford and worked for a number of NGO’s before establishing one of the first environmental consultancies in the UK, which he merged with a plc in 2002. He is a passionate conservationist.Key expertise: Investment business generation for the natural environment. Promotion of the value of the natural environment to a range of stakeholders – developers, planners, planning authorities, large corporates, landowners, lawyers. Public sector national Government non-executive director experience. Expert witness to a large number of public inquiries.